Coffee Urania

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Kaffee Urania, Radetzkystraße 24, exterior view at night, 2012
Coffee Urania, interior view, 2012
Coffee Urania, interior view, 2015
Photo from 1890 (postcard). The forerunner to Kaffee Urania was called "Cafe 68" at that time. In the background the historic Franzensbrücke .
Hubert Horky, 2012

The coffee Urania was a coffee house with a museum character in the Radetzkystraße 24 in the 3rd district of Vienna , Landstraße . The building in which it was located was built in 1847 as the first Viennese apartment building in the neo-Gothic style by Josef Kastan . The restaurant, which was open until well after midnight, got its name from the nearby Urania , a cinema and popular education center. Because of its special aura, Kaffee Urania has been the location of several films and TV series. In the last few years of its existence, the coffeehouse gained national fame in particular through the Austrian-German television thriller series Traces of Evil with Heino Ferch in the lead role. At the end of January 2016, Kaffee Urania was closed.

history

A coffee house was already running at the location of the Urania coffee during the Habsburg monarchy . A photo from 1890 shows a sign in front of the restaurant with the words "Cafe 68". From 1936 the coffee house was owned by the Horky family. The facility, which existed until it was closed, was commissioned by Gertrude Horky from a Viennese architect in 1936. In 1937 the restaurant was called "Cafe Urania"; the spelling was then changed to "Coffee Urania".

After the Second World War , Kaffee Urania (before the Vienna occupation sectors were established in early September 1945) was occupied for a time by soldiers of the Soviet Army. According to the tradition of Getrude Horky, there were sometimes even horses in the coffee house at that time. The heavy bombardment to which the nearby Franzensbrücke was exposed during the Second World War also left its mark on the coffee house, which is why the windows and the ceiling had to be replaced after the war.

In the 1960s and 1970s, small music groups and solo entertainers performed at Kaffee Urania . Even then it was run as a night coffee house. Until it was closed in January 2016, the coffee house, which was open from Monday to Saturday, was only unlocked at 8.15 p.m. Hubert Horky, son of Gertrude Horky, who ran it for more than 51 years, has been the owner since 1964.

Ambience and aura

The corner coffee house (Radetzkystraße / Obere Weißgerberstraße) consisted of two differently styled areas. The coffeehouse part at the entrance was furnished with furniture that, with its red artificial leather niches, is somewhat reminiscent of the furnishings created by Josef Zotti for the Vienna Café Museum - also in the 1930s . While the niche-like arrangement of the seating gave the room a striking structure that gave it a living room-like aura, in the second room the elongated bench opposite the bar ensured a comparatively strict room division. The pool table set up in the back of this room was pushed aside during dance events.

Just like the furniture, other components also come from an older time. Opposite the entrance were two coffee house telephone booths (which were still in existence at the time of the closure, but no longer in operation) with original equipment from the old days. The old Wurlitzer with singles from the 1970s was (highly unusual for Viennese coffee house standards in the 21st century) in operation until it closed. An old Urania espresso machine in the bar area was the technical highlight of the restaurant. Just like the interior, the moderate prices evoked memories of old times.

Museum character

Large areas of the walls of the coffee house were hung with enlarged black and white photographs from the Horky collection. The exhibited pictures primarily showed subjects from the old Vienna Prater . A separate exhibition area dealt with the history of Urania on the Vienna Danube Canal, which gave the restaurant its name . On October 6, 2012 and October 4, 2014 , Kaffee Urania took part in the “Long Night of Museums” with the Horky Collection .

Host and audience

The night coffee house has been personally run by Hubert Horky (* July 17, 1943 , † June 4, 2016 ) since 1964 . The innkeeper, known for his Viennese shame , who was considered by many to be a “ Viennese original ”, has been featured in several Austrian media. The audience was mixed and consisted mainly of students, craftsmen, retirees and artists. On the weekends, there were often parties at Kaffee Urania, which were mainly hosted by students and sometimes by artists. On such occasions the party organizers were allowed to bring their own food; It was not unusual for them to organize the musical sound. Occasionally musical groups also performed.

Hubert Horky has been collecting old views of the Vienna Prater since the early 1990s . The landlord had stored the Horky collection, which had grown to around 4,000 photos and postcards by 2015, in a number of albums, which he also showed to interested coffeehouse visitors - with moderate business activity. Some of the objects in the collection were exhibited in the guest rooms in the form of enlarged black and white photographs. Pictures from the Horky collection have been printed in a number of specialist books on the Vienna Prater. In the course of time, the collection was expanded to include the two sections on the Viennese Weißgerberviertel and the history of the Viennese Urania .

Shortly after the closure of the Urania coffee shop (at the end of January 2016), Hubert Horky died on June 4, 2016. His grave is in the Vienna Central Cemetery .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anna-Maria Bauer: Gründerzeithaus: owner has to restore roof after partial demolition Article in the daily newspaper Kurier, online version from 7 July 2019.
  2. ↑ At the beginning of September 1945 the 3rd district of Vienna came under British control as a result of the sectors of occupation agreed by the victorious powers .
  3. ^ Johann Werfring: Old Viennese refuge for night owls Article in the "Wiener Zeitung" of October 4, 2012, supplement "ProgrammPunkte", p. 7.
  4. ↑ ORF booklet for the Long Night of Museums 2012, p. 134.
  5. ↑ ORF booklet for the Long Night of Museums 2014, p. 127.
  6. ^ Viennese coffee maker legend has died Article by Johann Werfring in the "Wiener Zeitung" on June 16, 2016, p. 23.
  7. ↑ Lea's Shuffle Gangsters perform at Kaffee Urania on December 13, 2014
  8. Jump up ↑ “Räudiger Arbeiterinnen Chor 3000” in the Kaffee Urania, June 2012

literature

Web links

Commons : Coffee Urania  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 12  '44.3 " N , 16 ° 23' 28.3"  E