Café Felsche

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The Café Français on Augustusplatz in Leipzig around 1900

The Café français or 1914 Café Felsche was from 1835 to 1943 existing known Leipzig coffee at its best.

location

The café was the southern corner house at the confluence of Grimmaische Strasse on Augustusplatz . This gave it a prestigious location on the largest square in the city. It stood next to the former Pauline Church , a few meters away from it, and had a clear view of the square with the surrounding buildings of the New Theater , the post office and the picture museum .

history

Wilhelm Felsche

In 1821 the Leipzig confectioner Wilhelm Felsche began producing and selling chocolate. The business evidently developed so well that he was able to purchase the area between the Grimmaischer Tor, which was demolished in 1831, and the Paulinerkirche from the university in order to build a coffee house there. The old debt tower still stood on the site , the massive construction of which resulted in so much building material to be sold when it was demolished that a large part of the property could be purchased from it.

On October 3, 1835, the Café Français with an adjoining sales room opened on the ground floor and first floor of the new four-story building. The name said it was program insofar as Felsche wanted to offer Leipzig residents what luxury he had experienced in cafés during his stay in Paris . He developed the café into a first-rate coffee house, in which the elegant world frequented, but not artists and writers. The intended selection of the public was expressed, among other things, in the fact that four groschen admission (as a consumption voucher ) were required for viewing a Christmas exhibition in 1835 . The certain aloofness was the fate of the house several times. In November 1848 it was devastated in connection with the execution of Robert Blum in Vienna, stormed by starving men and women on July 4, 1923 and even set on fire on October 18, 1925.

Gas lighting was installed in the house as early as 1839 and a covered terrace was added. Since the premises were soon no longer sufficient for the flourishing chocolate production next to the confectionery, Felsche acquired the neighboring property in 1845 on Grimmaische Strasse (Lähnesches Haus).

  • The square in front of the establishment of the café

  • The Café Français around 1850

  • Design of a wall decoration

  • The Café Français 1877

After Felsche's death in 1867, his son-in-law Adolph Schütte-Felsche (1832–1908) took over the business. At the beginning of the 20th century he decided to convert the café. In 1910 this was completed and the house was reopened. He relocated chocolate production to Gohlis .

With the beginning of the First World War , the French name had to give way, and the establishment was henceforth called "Café Felsche". Under this name, too, it was one of the top addresses in Leipzig's gastronomy. During the air raid on Leipzig on December 4, 1943, Café Felsche was badly hit, ending a more than 100-year-old coffee house tradition.

Situation today

The new "Café Felsche" next to the university's Paulinum, which is under construction , 2010

After the rubble cleared place of the former Café Felsche remained empty for a long time after the Second World War and was only occasionally used for Christmas markets and other events, part of it became part of the new main building of the Karl Marx University in 1971 after the Paulinerkirche was demolished in 1968 overbuilt, which was demolished in 2007 in favor of a new building.

In the new campus buildings Augusteum and Paulinum of the University on Augustusplatz, which were created according to designs by Erick van Egeraat , the space of the former Café Felsche is occupied by a private-sector building that is not part of the university campus but is integrated into the overall architectural concept and generally referred to as Café Felsche becomes. The seven-story building next to the Paulinum, which was completed in 2009, contains offices on floors 2–5 and apartments on the top two. The ground floor and first floor are again used for catering purposes, but no longer as a café. The system caterer Vapiano opened a restaurant based on the conception of his restaurant chain with an Italian ambience on September 10, 2009, the interior of which was designed by the South Tyrolean architect and designer Matteo Thun .

Web links

Commons : Café Felsche  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Chocolate in Germany in the 19th century. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
  2. ^ Petra Schug: Chocolate Factory and Debtor Tower. Chocolate factory and debtor tower. The excavation of the Felsche coffee house in Leipzig. In: Excavations in Saxony. Vol. 1, 2009, ISSN  0138-4546 , pp. 76-80.
  3. ↑ Ulla Heise : Café français - Felsche coffee house - 1835–1943. In: Leipziger Blätter. No. 6, 1985, ISSN  0232-7244 , p. 52 ff.
  4. ^ Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z. Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , p. 145.
  5. ↑ Vapiano - Mediterranean lifestyle in Leipzig. In: Leipziger Internet newspaper. Retrieved February 21, 2014.

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 21.4 "  N , 12 ° 22 ′ 47"  E