The cafe culture , was it the Turks parting gift to the Viennese? Mehru Jaffer Europe is a confident continent today. The need to twist history here for the sole reason of feeling good seems less when compared to other parts of the world where each king of the day tries to wipe out what he may not like about the past. The Viennese no longer hide the fact that they learnt to drink coffee from the Turks or that it is their deep addiction to Turkish baths that has led to the modern day sauna. Vienna is the ancient capital of the very Catholic Habsburg rulers who spent hundreds of years constantly battling with the Islamic armies of the Turks ruling from Istanbul, the capital of the Ottomon empire. Once upon a time the Turks had conquered much of the territory known as Eastern Europe and looked upon Vienna as the gateway into the western part of this continent. The year 1529 is remembered as the first siege of Vienna by the Turks and the last one is 1683. I was already in Vienna and very much a witness to the festivities held here in 1983 to mark not just 300 years of the defeat of the Turks but also to celebrate the long tradition of coffee drinking here. In between all the song and dance over the gallantry of their own gods, king and country the exhibitions and literature distributed at that time also remembered to mention the diplomatic influences of the Near East upon Viennese life. In fact the coffee house continues to be celebrated here as, "The epitome of Viennese civilisation, the fulcrum of social, itnellectual and political life". The romanticised version of the Viennese story is that Georg Franz Kolschitzky was a Polish adventurer and probably a double spy who travelled as far as Armenia, spoke the Turkish language fluently and was used by the Habsburg as an interpreter. He was said to be a master of disguise and most Turks even mistook him for one of them as he was entertained from tent to tent that encircled the imperial city little realising that the Pole collected military intelligence to and from the Christian relief forces that were secretly gathering in an effort to liberate Vienna from the Turks. After the battle on top of a hill just outside my kitchen window where a church now stands, the Pole was asked what he wanted as reward? He is reported to have promptly but modestly said that he asked for nothing more than the pebble shapped animal fodder left behind in numerous sacks by fleeing Turkish soldiers. It is said that there were about five hundred pounds of the greenish beans that none recognised except the Pole. He had tasted coffee during his several journeys to the East and knew how to roast, grind and brew the beans into the most exciting of drinks which it remains to this day. Already high on the success of the military and after one royal sip of the warm drink the Pole is believed to have convinced the king to grant him an imperial decree to open the first coffee house in Vienna just east of Saint Stephen's Cathedral, the Gothic church that is also one of the city's oldest places of worship. Unfortunately the dark, warm drink did not appeal much to the masses at first. But the ever enterprising Pole added milk and sugar to the brew and to keep his customers linger along longer by his side, he took to twisting a piece of dough into a crescent and baking it golden brown to serve it along with coffee. To this day the croissant remains the most constant companion of coffee to the delight of not just thousands of Turkish people living in Vienna but also most Muslims. The Turks may not have made it as soldiers into the city then but flood its shores now as guest workers even to follow modest professions like keeping the city clean or helping out at construction sites. The Polish population of Vienna is also happy to see a commemorative brass plaque put up at the site of the Blue Bottle by the Warsaw confectioners saying in German and Pole that Franciszek Jerzy Kolschitzky, 1640-1694, court courier and scout during the siege of Vienna, 1683, lived and died in this house. All that it takes then to keep everyone in the community smiling is not lengthy legislation alone but often just a small, charming gesture of which the Viennese seem to have a vault full. |
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The Coffee Story
