Demel, the Imperial Confectioner
Why is it significant?
Stop in front of the shop window on the Kohlmarkt and admire whatever extravagance the confectioners have built this season, a castle of marzipan, a carriage of spun sugar, a landscape you are absolutely not supposed to eat. Above the door you will read the words k.u.k.
Key Facts
| Place | Demel, the Imperial Confectioner |
|---|---|
| Address | Kohlmarkt 14, 1010 Wien, Austria |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.20860, 16.36720 |
| Part of Walk | Melange, Torte and Schnitzel: Vienna's Coffee Houses and the Naschmarkt |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop in front of the shop window on the Kohlmarkt and admire whatever extravagance the confectioners have built this season, a castle of marzipan, a carriage of spun sugar, a landscape you are absolutely not supposed to eat. Above the door you will read the words k.u.k. Hofzuckerbäcker, imperial and royal court confectioner.
The house goes back to 1786, when a confectioner from Württemberg, Ludwig Dehne, opened a sweet shop near the old court theatre. In the nineteenth century the business passed to an assistant named Christoph Demel, and his name has stayed on it ever since. The title of court supplier was a kind of royal stamp of quality, and Demel delivered cakes, chocolates and ices to the Hofburg, just around the corner. Today a glass wall at the back lets you watch the confectioners at work, rolling marzipan and pouring glaze, the way a theatre lets you peek backstage.
Inside, the waitresses, the Demelinerinnen, traditionally speak to you in an old-fashioned third person, as if you were not quite in the room. Would the gentleman have chosen? Has madam already decided? It is said that Empress Elisabeth, obsessed with her slender figure, allowed herself candied violets from here. Whether that is history or marketing, the violets are still sold.
Not every chapter is sweet. From the 1970s the shop belonged to Udo Proksch, a flamboyant designer who ran a private political club upstairs. He was later convicted of murder for the Lucona affair, the deliberate sinking of a cargo ship in 1977 in an insurance fraud that killed six crew members. The scandal shook the Austrian political establishment and brought down ministers.
And Demel fought a famous war with the hotel you will meet later, over the right to call a chocolate cake by its name. Keep that in mind. Now walk back up to the Graben, past the plague column, and slip into the narrow Dorotheergasse on your right.