When the first coffeehouse in Germany is mentioned, Leipzig is often the name that comes up. This assumption persists, but is not entirely historically accurate. In fact, the first documented coffeehouse on German soil opened in Bremen as early as 1673. As an important trading and port city, Bremen was involved in international trade from an early stage, through which coffee also reached Central Europe. In this context, a publicly accessible place opened where coffee was served – and thus a coffeehouse in the modern sense. However, this early Bremen coffeehouse remained largely invisible culturally; it left few traces in the collective memory.

Just a few years later, in 1677, Hamburg followed suit with an English-style coffeehouse. Hamburg's importance as an international trading center and its stronger integration into European networks meant that this coffeehouse is much better documented. For this reason, Hamburg is mentioned more prominently in many sources, even though it is not the actual origin of German coffeehouse history.

Leipzig first entered the coffee-making scene in 1694 – more than twenty years after Bremen. The "Arabian Coffee House" opened there, a coffeehouse that still exists today and is one of the oldest continuously operating coffeehouses in Europe. At that time, Leipzig was not a port, but an intellectual and economic center: trade fairs, printing, a university, and a vibrant musical life shaped the city. It was precisely here that the coffeehouse developed into what we now culturally associate with it – a public space for exchange, discussion, reading, writing, and social life.

The reason Leipzig is so often cited as the location of the first coffeehouse lies less in chronology than in its continuity and impact. While the early coffeehouses in Bremen and Hamburg either disappeared or are barely documented, the Leipzig coffeehouse persisted for centuries and was firmly rooted in city life. It was frequented by artists, scholars, and merchants, and profoundly shaped the image of the coffeehouse as a bourgeois institution.

Historically, it can therefore be stated with certainty: Bremen was the site of the first documented coffeehouse in Germany, Hamburg made the coffeehouse internationally visible, and Leipzig made it culturally significant. The widespread "Leipzig myth" is thus not an error, but rather an indication of where the coffeehouse found its true social role. It was not the earliest date, but the lasting impact that determined which place remained in the public consciousness.