- Café Josty
Café Josty was a
Berlin café located on thePotsdamer Platz . At the beginning of 2001, a new Café Josty was opened at theSony Center not far from its original location.History
Nineteenth Century
The Josty brothers immigrated from
Sils inSwitzerland to Berlin and founded the pastry bakery "Zuckerbäckerei Johann Josty & Co." in 1796. From this company emerged the Café Josty at least from 1812, first located "An der Stechbahn", then on theSchlossfreiheit (now the Schlossplatz square), and finally after 1880 on the Potsdamer Platz.The earlier addresses were frequented by artists like
Heinrich Heine ,Joseph von Eichendorff and theGrimm Brothers -- and during the imperial timesTheodor Fontane andAdolph von Menzel . In 1900, the Josty family sold the cafe to the widow of the founder of theCafé Bauer . The Josty was modernized but retained its original name.Twentieth Century
In the twentieth century, the cafe became an important meeting place for artists, especially of the movements of
Expressionism and theNew Objectivity .Paul Boldt described the appearance of the cafe in a well-known 1912sonnet .Erich Kästner used the cafe as the setting for an important scene in the children's book "Emil und die Detektive ".The cafe closed in 1930, and the building was destroyed in
World War II . InWim Wenders ' film "Wings of Desire ", an old man attempts to find the location of the cafe but fails.New Café Josty
The new Café Josty is located in the Sony-Center, only 200 meters away from its original location. It is popular with tourists and attracts some artists during the
Berlinale .External links
* [http://www.domaene-dahlem.de/museum/Ausstellung/Sonderausstellung/museum_sonderausstellung_2002.html Café Josty, 1901, Painting by Paul Höniger]
* [http://parolemil.ifrance.com/parolemil/German/caf%E9%20josty.html View of the Café Josty (circa 1920)]
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