The birth of the Viennese coffee-house is dated by historians to the year 1683. At this time, Vienna was in a rather difficult situation. The Turks, which had already enslaved large parts of Eastern Europe, besieged the city with an invincible army and were just short of seizing it. |
The commander of the city, Graf von Starhemberg, was defending the city with his men quite heroically, but the situation became more and more hopeless. The only chance was to get help from the Emperor’s army, which was only several days’ march away. But also the Turks knew about this option. All couriers that left... |