Author Meriel Schindler’s autobiographical book “The Lost Café Schindler” is put to the stage at the Tirol Provincial Theater from early April through early July.
Meriel Schindler pieced together an extraordinary story taking in two centuries, two world wars and a family business: the famous Café Schindler. Launched in 1922 as an antidote to the horrors of the First World War, this grand café became the whirling social centre of Innsbruck. And then the Nazis arrived.
Through the story of the Café Schindler, this moving book weaves together memoir, family history and an untold story of the Jews of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It explores the restorative power of writing, and offers readers a profound reflection on memory, truth, trauma and the importance of cake.
Meriel herself had led a privileged life in London until at 15 she was suddenly uprooted and sent to a provincial convent school in Innsbruck, speaking no German, with no proper explanations given. To answer these questions, Meriel trawled through Nazi era documents and photo albums she inherited from her father when he died in 2017. One photo album was devoted to the Cafe Schindler; a grand Viennese-style coffee-house, founded by her grandfather as an antidote to the horrors of fighting in WWI. As Meriel visited some of the places mentioned in letters and documents and searched through archives, she was able to unravel far more than just a family history, providing a broader account of communal and social life in a provincial city. From April 06 to July 07, 2024, director Jessica Glause’s contemporary production is bringing this amazing family history to the stage at the Tirol Provincial Theater in Innsbruck.
Meriel Schindler pieced together an extraordinary story taking in two centuries, two world wars and a family business: the famous Café…
