The Querfeld Family

On 1st March 1976 Herbert and Anita Querfeld leased the Café Landtmann for 25 years (in 2001 the lease was converted into a headlease). Herbert Querfeld often says that at that time the Café Landtmann as a traditional Viennese coffeehouse was already an institution, but its infrastructure and equipment no longer met modern demands. So he met Helmut Zilk, who at that time was Vienna’s City Counsellor for Culture and a regular Landtmann customer, to discuss a complete renovation of the café with the financial aid from the City of Vienna. These plans were supported by another regular guest of the Café Landtmann, the then vice mayor of Vienna Erhard Busek. As a result of these negotiations the Café Landtmann was completely renovated. The renovation work took four and a half months and required the considerable amount of 9 million Austrian Schillings (5 million Schillings came from Vienna’s Heritage Conservation Fund, 1 million from the Federal Chancellery, and 3 million Schillings were raised by the Querfeld family themselves).

As Herbert Querfeld did not just want to offer his guests a feast for the eyes but also wanted to serve the finest Viennese pastries in his café, he hired a pastry chef who in the cellar vaults of the Café Landtmann made lovely handmade cakes and pastries according to old traditional recipes and using only the finest ingredients. As the new pastry culture met the enthusiastic approval of the customers, the patisserie in the café’s cellar vaults soon became too small and the Querfeld family needed to find its own production facilities for its pastries. They purchased the “K&K Mehlspeis-Paradies” in Schmelzgasse 3 in the 2nd district, a small café and pastry shop with its own production facilities. When these production facilities became too small too, “Landtmann’s Fine Patisserie” in Alt Erlaa was finally opened in autumn 2006.

Back to the year 1988: In this year Berndt Querfeld entered his parents’ business. Together with his parents he brought the so-called “Landtmann style” to perfection, which today serves as an example of the typical Viennese coffeehouse culture. The Querfeld family later successfully applied this traditional coffeehouse style to the other cafés in Vienna, which by and by they opened over the years: in 1992 the Café Mozart, in 1999 the Café Residenz in Schönbrunn, in 2003 the Café Hofburg, which is located right in the inner courtyard of the Imperial Palace, and in 2009 the Landtmann’s Parkcafé next to the Neptune Fountain in the Schönbrunn Palace Gardens.

All these coffeehouses offer classical Viennese hospitality à la Landtmann. Since Herbert Querfeld’s death the Café Landtmann has been managed by Anita and Berndt Querfeld. Their main philosophy is to run the Landtmann not as a museum-like coffeehouse but as a lively place for people to meet. The other cafés are also run by members of the Querfeld family: the Café Mozart by Andrea Winkler (Herbert and Anita Querfeld’s daughter) and the Café Residenz by Irmgard Querfeld (Berndt Querfeld’s wife). Berndt Querfeld manages the Café Hofburg and Landtmann’s Fine Patisserie, and together with his wife Irmgard he also runs the Landtmann’s Parkcafé in Schönbrunn.