Students at Central European University challenged popular perceptions of Vienna's coffee and coffeehouse culture and reestablished it as a phenomenon beyond the scope of the city: a reflection of both local and international cultures, histories, and stories. Shaped by the intersections between migration, colonisation, and industrialisation, the story of coffee extends far beyond the coffee house and is embedded deep within the country's national history.

For Kulturpool, this online showcase demonstrates the diversity of Austria's digital collection and the vastness of Austria's heritage institutions. Combining objects from the Wien Museum to the Technisches Museum, art, history, and even science are able to come together to support and elevate interdisciplinary research.

The most widespread origin story of coffee is attributed to Georg Franz Kolschitzky, a Polish diplomat and spy for the Habsburgs. The legend goes that during the Second Siege of Vienna in 1683, while delivering messages to the relief army outside Ottoman lines, Kolschitzky recovered the mysterious coffee substance as the Ottoman troops were retreating. After bringing it back to Vienna, as a reward for his efforts to the Habsburgs, Kolschitzky was granted the right to use the recovered coffee beans to open Vienna's first coffeehouses, laying the foundation for the traditional coffeehouses we know today.

On the other hand, another legend claims that it was instead an Armenian spy named Johannes Diodato who popularised the coffee house in Vienna as a meeting place for secret rendezvous. Given his extensive knowledge of the beans and drinking methods, the court granted Diodato the exclusive right to trade and prepare coffee.

In these types of stories, it is Vienna itself that claims to have fostered and developed the culture of coffee. The reality is, however, coffee culture has existed far before these stories came to be. To understand the role coffee has played in Vienna, it is important to see Viennese coffee culture not merely as a picturesque image of elevated, Western culture, but as a complex cultural phenomenon with deep-rooted historical and social dimensions.

Like in Vienna, coffee in the 16th century Ottoman Empire laid the foundation for a unique social culture, with the kahvehane (coffeehouse) emerging as a vital space for interaction. Here, people with different backgrounds gathered to discuss politics, culture, and daily events, transforming coffee into a catalyst for conversation and connection. Traditional music played with ney (flute) and kanuns (zither) made coffeehouses not only a place for intellectual discussions but also for entertainment, celebration, and community bonding.

The social significance of coffeehouses in the Ottoman Empire was so great that they were often described in contemporary writings, both by Ottomans and foreign travellers. Such travel logs painted a vivid picture of coffeehouses as essential hubs where people exchanged ideas and debated political and cultural matters. These coffeehouses and the traditions of drinking Turkish coffee were so ingrained in Ottoman society that when Sultan Murad IV ordered their closure in the 1590s, Koca Sinan Pasha, the Grand Vizier, responded:

"You ordered that coffeehouses should be banned. Fine with me, I have never been inside a coffeehouse, but these people need a place for R&R, or they will eat each other's flesh." 

Today, many people from Turkey and all over the world are living in Vienna, and for them as well, coffeehouses offer a sense of belonging – a place to feel at home.