Vienna is famous for many things, and among them are its coffeehouses. For some the terms Vienna and coffeehouse are almost synonymous. Given that we will be in Vienna and given that our conference location is a block away from the oldest coffeehouse in Vienna where coffee was first introduced to the Viennese, the following little vignette seemed appropriate:
Legend has it that soldiers of the Polish-Habsburg army, while liberating Vienna from the second Turkish siege in 1683, found a number of sacks with strange beans that they initially thought were camel feed and wanted to burn. The Polish king Jan Sobieski granted the sacks to one of his officers named Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, known as Georg Franz Kolschitzky by the Viennese, who after some experimenting with the beans is credited with starting the first coffee house in Vienna.
The first documented founding of a coffeehouse in Vienna, however, was on January17, 1685 by a certain Johannes Theodat (Diodato), an Armenian resident of Vienna, who opened a coffeehouse in his house at the Haarmarkt, today’s Rotenturmstrasse 14. He held a ‘Privileg’ (a license) for the retail of coffee by Kaiser Leopold I.
Today this coffeehouse is called Café Daniel Moser and the location is still Rotenturmstrasse (Red Tower street) 14, and we have the opportunity on our lunch breaks to slip over and get our coffee at the Moser. Once there, please note the plaques on the wall commemorating the founding by Johannes Theodat as well as ditties on the origin and meaning of the bagel. Among the stories told of the days of the Ottoman campaigns, is also the story of the origin of the croissant (called 'Kipferl' in the Viennese dialect). Coincidental with our decision to have our conference in Vienna and its proximity to the Café Moser, an article in cartoon form appeared in the New York Times of April 6, 2009, which is reproduced below.
Interestingly also, in his recent book Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone, Nation Books, 2009, the dinstinguished Uruguyan writer and activist Eduardo Galeano (author of Open Veins of America, the book President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela gave to President Obama on their first meeting in April 2009) relates the story of the Origin of the Croissant, our story, thus:
The croissant, another symbol of France, was born in Vienna. Not for nothing does it bear the name and form of a crescent moon, which was and remains the symbol of Turkey. Turkish troops had laid siege to Vienna. One day in 1683, the city broke the siege and that same night, in a pastry shop, Peter Wender invented the croissant. And Vienna ate the vanquished.
Then Georg Franz Kolschitzky, a Cossack who had fought for Vienna, asked to be paid in coffee beans, which the Turks had left behind in their retreat, and he opened the city's first café. And Vienna drank the vanquished. (p. 194)
The message is clear: We have to visit the Café Moser and make sure we check the veracity of all these stories. If nothing else, we have the assurance of being able to drink some of the best coffee in the world. I know. The Moser used to be one of my favorite haunts during my student days in Vienna!
Manoutchehr M. Eskandari-Qajar
_____________
For more on Vienna's hip coffee scene visit the following pages:
http://www.spottedbylocals.com/vienna/category/activity/coffee-tea
________________
The New York Times cartoon: