„Cafe Museum“- a place of ingenius encounter…

In 1899 Ferdinand Rainer opened the “Café museum” in the perfect place. The café’s ideal location close to the Secession, the Vienna Künstlerhaus, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Vienna State Opera Theater on the Vienna river and the Viennese Music Association, made it into a hot spot for artists and musicians.

The architect Adolf Loos was commissioned to design the interior of the café. The architect decided to go against the typical pompous and overly ornate style of the time and decided on a simplistic style which he later referred to in his essay: “Ornament and crime”.

Many artists felt comfortable in this modern ambiance. Artists such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka were regulars at the Café Museum. Famous authors such as Joseph Roth, Karl Kraus, Georg Trakl, Elias Canetti, Hermann Broch, Robert Musil and Leo Perutz and well known composers such as Alban Berg, Franz Lehar and Oscar Straus frequented the café. Even Adolf Loos himself and his colleague the famous architect Otto Wagner visited the café on a regular basis.

In 1906 the Café Museum was taken over by the Pretscher family who successfully managed it over several decades including two world wars. In 1911 the family commissioned a young architect named Zotti to design the garden of the café. Twenty years later the family commissioned Zotti to redesign the by then worn down Loos interior of the cafe.

Josef Zotti, student of the legendary architect Josef Hoffman, had by then become very well-known through his work. His original furniture design and interior designs for private houses and villas had created a name for him in past years.

In 2003 the interior was removed and replaced by the original Loos interior. The remains of the Zotti design were moved to the Imperial Furniture Collection Museum.

In mid 2010 the Pretscher-Rokitansky family who owned the cafe decided to lease it to Berndt Querfeld. As the head of the coffeehouse association Mr. Querfeld was aware of the importance of coziness in the Cafe and in turn decided to redesign the Cafe in the original style of Zotti.