“The premises, which arose at the beginning of the 1700s as a meeting point of the emerging bourgeoisie, are the symbol the vibrant cultural life of the city”
By now there are very few places, where you can still experience the authentic, highly evocative atmosphere, that characterized early twentieth century Prague, a multicultural city and intellectual centre of an empire, of an era and of a world close to dissolution. Among these are undoubtedly the old town breweries and historical cafés.
It is the latter, in fact, which is the most tangible manifestation of the refined, and at the same time decadent soul of the Bohemian capital, an important benchmark in the economy of the new Europe and a metropolis in which the present, past and the future of a nation and a people are still able to live in harmony. It is indeed on the very tables of the literary cafes of Prague, genuine cultural institutions, where some of the most beautiful and unforgettable pages of world literature of the twentieth century were written, and they will be the target of our short trip.
The “café” would already affirm itself in Prague, and in capitals across Europe, in the eighteenth century as a
meeting point for the emerging bourgeoisie who wanted to stand out both from the aristocracy, who would meet in private lounges, and from the working class, who had taverns as their natural aggregation point. Already in the nineteenth century the term became synonymous with cultural life, and the exchange of ideas, but also the central place in the economic and social life of the city. Intellectuals, scientists and businessmen sipping from steaming cups, a few inches from each other, that drink, newly arrived in Europe, tonic for the body and soul, and which no one could now do without. If in early nineteenth century London there were about 1000 coffee houses and in Paris even 3000. In Prague too, where the first “café” opened its doors to customers in 1714, the choice of where to go to read the local and foreign press, or learn about the latest cultural trends, was certainly large. If in Vienna, the capital of the empire, the most famous were the Café Landtmann, loved by Sigmund Freud and Gustav Mahler, the Sacher and the Café Central, the tables around which the likes of Karl Kraus, Alfred Adler and Stefan Zweig would chat, cultural life also took place on the banks of the Vltava, in the numerous “kavárny”, each of which was distinguished by its own unique atmosphere and clientele. The cafes of multiethnic Prague could count among their clients intellectuals of the calibre of Gustav Meyrink, Max Brod, Jaroslav Seifert, Vítězslav Nezval, the Čapek brothers, and inevitably Franz Kafka, who in the days of rigid and long, continental winters sat to discuss and write on the tables of the Café Louvre, the Café Arco, the Edison, the Continental, the Deminka… places that have helped shape the society and culture of an era.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Bohemian city was a dense network of book clubs who met in the most well-known venues of the centre. Among these groups of intellectuals was the Brentano Circle which associated themselves with the figure of the German philosopher and psychologist Franz Brentano. Even Franz Kafka and his friend and biographer Max Brod often participated in these gatherings between 1902 and 1905, when they were both college students. The club would meet in a small room in the Café Louvre, a true cultural institution since 1902, and still active today on what was once the Ferdinandstrasse, but today is Národní třída. Kafka attended the Louvre quite regularly until 1905, the year in which Max Brod was excluded from the group. In all probability, it was in this cafe where the writer of “The trial” a few years later would meet Albert Einstein, the frequent visitor of the locale during his stay in Prague. The most well known circle of intellectuals at the time, however, was the “Prague Circle”, born in 1904 as a result of the friendship of 4 twenty-year-olds: Oskar Baum, Felix Weltsch, Max Brod and Kafka. After the exodus of the latter two from the Louvre, the Prague circle chose the Café Arco as its headquarters, at the corner of the streets Hybernská and Dlážděná, which opened its doors in 1907, and became the favorite location of German language avant-garde writers. Here Kafka met the Czech journalist Milena Jesenská, who subsequently became his translator and lover. However Kafka was a regular Prague cafe visitor, and he spent much time there. In the course of his life, he chose several as his favorites, changing on a frequent basis just as he did with the houses in which he lived. Among the many, we remember the Savoy, which the writer painstakingly visited between October 1911 and February 1912, and the Continental, one of the largest Prague cafes, attended by the German bourgeoisie and located on the Graben (Na příkopě), not far from the Café Central, in which there was always a large selection of foreign press.
A regular customer of Café Continental however, was the Austrian writer and esotericist, Gustav Meyrink, author of
many novels, including the famous “Der Golem”, who with his followers gathered in the “chess room” of this ancient “kavárna”, where he spoke of his experiments of spiritualism and mediumship.
In 1914 another major cafe began its activities: the Imperial, a marvel of art deco, home of the Czech Literary Club, and famous at the time for its pool hall.
It is impossible not to mention Café Slavia, facing the National Theatre, which opened in 1881. Frequent Slavia clients were Bedřich Smetana, Vítězslav Nezval (who named it in one of his poems), Jaroslav Seifert, to the more contemporary Jan Werich and Václav Havel.
The Prague of the First Republic was also known by the name of “Little Paris”, mainly due to the high number of its literary cafés that had no reason to envy to those of the French capital. However, the golden age of the cafes in Prague ended during the communist period. Slavia was one of the few which continued its activities in this period, although its appearance was affected very much, but for most of the others it marked a period of decline, and many closed their doors.
The Café Imperial was already closed during the Second World War, and reopened in 1992. After the recent renovation in 2007, which lasted two years, it has regained (on the street Na Poříčí n. 15) its once magnificent appearance. The Continental and Central, after many years of operation, no longer exist, while the Savoy (1893) that during communism served as a place of recruitment for the new generation of police, has been beautifully renovated and is still open in the neighborhood of Malá Strana. Unfortunately even the legendary Café Arco has ceased its activities, and from the 90s it has been used as a canteen by the Ministry of the Interior.
After the Velvet Revolution in Prague the traditional coffee houses (at least those which remained) experienced a new period of splendor. Most of them have been reopened and restored and still attract tourists, Czech cultural figures and ordinary people who find ideal places to read, relax and socialize in them. More have been added to the city, whilst others have been enhanced and furnished according to the varied styles and fashions, each with its distinctive clientele. From the hipster cafes, to those in the 30s style, today the Prague cafes continue, as they once did, to play an important role in the social, economic and cultural life of the Czech capital.
by Mauro Ruggiero
This article was also published in Progetto Repubblica Ceca
