Bernhart coffee house
The Bernhart coffee house , founded around 1835, is located on the main square of Wiener Neustadt and is considered a constant of Viennese coffee house culture beyond the city limits. It is currently closed.
history
The house was first mentioned in a document in 1479. The Habsburg Friedrich III. , then Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, sold it to a Viennese Neustadt citizen. In the great fire of Wiener Neustadt in 1834, the interior of the ground floor was completely destroyed and the facade of the house was also badly damaged. In the course of the renovation, a coffee house was set up on the ground floor and the facade was given its current appearance. In 1917, the married couple Leopold and Maria Bernhart acquired the coffee house and ran it as a family business until 2016.
Because of its central location and hospitality, the Bernhart is firmly anchored in the city's cultural life. On June 22, 1924, the regional workers' chess federation held its first conference there. In November 2018, a reading was held with the moderator Birgit Pointner .
The later owner, Roman Schärf, founded the Daniel Moser in Vienna's Rotenturmstrasse in the 1980s , a coffee house with its own roasting facility, named after the 17th century mayor of the same name. The Daniel Moser is located at the point where Johannes Theodat once founded the first Viennese coffee house. This also resulted in the subtitle of the Daniel Moser brand - "since 1685".
When the Bernhart family announced their withdrawal at the turn of 2015/16, Roman Schärf originally wanted to redesign the traditional business with the local master baker Karl Linauer and the gastronomy consultant Gerfried Rieger. The two partners left, the entrepreneur Jürgen Höfler got in. From June 2016 to June 2018 the coffee house was closed for renovation work. Soon after the reopening, Schärf and Höfler also parted ways. Jürgen Höfler then ran the coffeehouse alone, a tenant at the beginning of 2020 who closed it in March 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic .
The coffee house
The company has 120 seats and two entrances. The front entrance is on the main square and leads to the bakery, the bar and a guest area with classic seating. Entering the Bernhart from Grazer Strasse, the back entrance, leads to the billiards room and the room , a room dedicated to Greta Zimmer Friedman , who is from Wiener Neustadt .
The room
Photo: Victor Jorgensen
In 1939, at the age of 15, Greta Zimmer and her three sisters had to flee Wiener Neustadt because of their Jewish origins. Their story was worked up by the Wiener Neustadt historian Werner Sulzgruber . On the day of the Allied victory, August 14, 1945, Greta Zimmer was kissed in New York by an unknown sailor - and as a result, involuntarily became a photo icon of the 20th century. The reason for this is that Alfred Eisenstaedt photographed the scene and published it in LIFE magazine. The image eventually became synonymous worldwide with a peaceful and happy future. The room is furnished with deep seating and a number of memorabilia. Roman Schärf is convinced “that the room girls used to go to Café Bernhart and ate cream slices here.” The room is dominated by the photography of VJ Day in Times Square . A 50-minute TV documentary about the story of the photo is shown on a screen. The menu also contains numerous pictures of Alfred Eisenstaedt, Marilyn, the Kennedys, Marlene Dietrich etc. In August 2018, the coffee house was visited by 19-year-old Ethan Franzblau from Tampa in Florida, the grandson of Josefine Zimmer, Greta's sister. He retold his relatives' escape in a high school graduation video. "My grandmother [...] didn't like talking about her childhood in Wiener Neustadt," he said, "the memories were too painful". Because the parents of the room girls were victims of the Holocaust.
food and drinks
The range of food and drinks on the one hand corresponds to the classic menu of a Viennese coffee house, on the other hand, special emphasis is placed on local and natural products. In addition to the classic Bernhart cream slices , homemade lemonades are offered. The pastries are also homemade, the bread range comes from the Viennese bakery Joseph Brot. The coffee is still supplied by the Daniel Moser roastery .
Pool table
There is still the traditional pool table .
Web links
- Vienna Alps , brief description with a photograph
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Flanner : Make yourself free !: on the history of the Wiener Neustädter workers, gymnastics and sports movement , ASKÖ-Bezirksverband 1992, p. 27
- ↑ Niederösterreichische Nachrichten : Café Bernhart goes to Schärf & Linauer , January 12, 2016
- ↑ mein district.at : Cafe Bernhart Comeback in January 2018 , August 30, 2017
- ↑ Niederösterreichische Nachrichten : Café marriage before the divorce , October 9, 2018
- ↑ Michael J. Payer: Newly opened traditional café Bernhart , in: tips, June 6, 2018
- ↑ a b Kurier (Vienna): Symbol of Peace: A Kiss Makes History , August 12, 2018