Fra “Café Vaterland”, “Café des Westens” e “Café Josty”. Itinerari storico-letterari nei caffè della Moderne berlinese

The article aims to investigate the role of literary cafés in Wilhelmine Germany and during the Weimar Republic as emblematic places of meeting and cultural exchange, insisting in particular on the significance of the “Café Vaterland” and the “Café Josty” for the Berlin Moderne, but without forgetting some other places of the city of particular interest for the Expressionism, such as the “Café des Westens”. In Weimar Berlin, in fact, a peculiarity of the city’s west was constituted by the incredible number of cafés, restaurants and places dedicated to leisure, which arose around the Potsdamer Platz during the years of the fin de siècle or which – as in the case of the “Café Josty” – had been on the square for more than a century. As the article intends to demonstrate, these places of cultural exchange were experienced by writers and artists like the exponents of Der Sturm in the 1910s and 1920s thanks to the fashion of the jour fixe, which made it possible for writers of the time to meet on fixed days and times in the various cafés of the metropolis.