A heavy blow

Trieste coffee roaster Roberto Hausbrandt is dead

(Bild: Wolfgang Golob stock.adobe)

An era ends for coffee culture in Trieste: Roberto Hausbrandt, grandson of Hermann Hausbrandt, the founder of the Trieste coffee roaster of the same name, has died at the age of 85.

Trieste has thus lost the last heir to the family that founded the famous coffee roasting company, the daily newspaper "Il Piccolo" reported on Thursday. Roberto's grandfather Hermann, a former commander in the Austrian merchant navy from Graz, had founded the company "H. Hausbrandt" in Trieste in 1892. Hausbrandt was the first company to package roasted coffee in sealed metal containers and market it in this way. By 1907, the company had already become a large coffee roasting and tea trading company.

Company still active today
Roberto Hausbrandt inherited the family business after the Second World War, but left in 1977 due to family tensions. A short time later, the company changed hands and was sold to another major coffee entrepreneur, Martino Zanetti from Veneto. But Roberto Hausbrandt remained loyal to the coffee sector: in 1981 he founded a new brand, Caffè Adler. The company is still active today, and Roberto Hausbrandt was at the helm until 2000.

The history of Trieste is closely linked to that of coffee culture. The first café was opened in the former Habsburg port city in 1748, and many more followed between the 19th and early 20th centuries. Their furnishings, architecture and atmosphere are reminiscent of the fashions and styles of various historical eras. Trieste's cafés became a meeting place for artists, philosophers, politicians and intellectuals.