Leopold Hawelka

Leopold Hawelka (April 11, 1911, Mistelbach) is an Austrian cafetier, founder of the Café Hawelka ("Künstlerkaffeehauses Hawelka"). His parents were of Bohemian ancestry, and his father was a shoemaker.

At age 14, Hawelka's family settled in Vienna, and Hawelka began to work in the Deierl restaurant. There, he met Josefine Danzberger, who also worked in the restaurant business. They married in 1936 and opened their own café, Kaffee Alt Wien, on the Bäckerstrasse. They later set up a new café, the Café Hawelka, on Dorotheergasse. During World War II, the café was closed and the Hawelkas were not able to operate their business. After the end of the war, in September 1945, the Hawelkas were able to reopen their café, whose building had survived the war largely intact.

Hawelka was married to Josefine Danzberger (born October 12, 1913, Kirchdorf an der Krems; died March 22, 2005, Vienna) from 1936 until her death. Their son, Günther Hawelka, continues to bake the café's speciality Buchteln pastries after his mother's recipe and to help run the café. [cite news | author=Anne Marshall Zwack | title=Where to Go After the Show: Vienna | url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9A0DE2DB143EF93AA25753C1A960948260 | work=New York Times | date=1986-10-19 | accessdate=2008-10-01]

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