Advanced Search

Related News

Home » Metro

Iconic cafe popular among Jews back in the 1940s reopens

By Yang Jian | August 26, 2015, Wednesday | Online Edition

RON Klinger, the grandson of the joint founder of a cafe in Hongkou District where Jewish refugees used to meet was among the first group of visitors to a replica of the building opened on August 26.

The 74-year-old Klinger and his wife Suzie, city and district government officials, and the consulate general of Israel in Shanghai were all in attendance at the reopening of “Das Weisse Rossel" cafe. Better known as the White Horse Inn, it first opened on Changyang Road in 1939.

“The feeling is excellent, like going back home,” said Klinger, who grew up in the cafe.
Rebuilt according to the original blueprint, the cafe stands opposite the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, 100 meters from its former location.

The original three-story wooden and brick structure that combined Western and Eastern architecture was a meeting place and venue for celebrations for Jewish people. It was torn down around 2007 for road widening.

“The story of our family is one among millions, but we were lucky. Our story had a happy ending thanks to Shanghai,” Klinger said.

Together with over 20,000 stateless Jewish refugees, his grandparents, Leon and Maja Klinger fled from Vienna in 1938. They went to Shanghai, a place of refuge where passports and visas were not needed along with the Mosberg family.

The Klinger family opened the Klinger Restaurant while the Mosberg family set up the White Horse Inn beside. They together created a typical Viennese coffee house and restaurant that also served as bar and nightclub.

"It became very popular among both Jewish and other foreigners," he said.

Klinger's father Hermann fell in love with his mother Herta Mosberg in the White Horse Inn in 1940. They got married in February and Klinger was born in November.

His grandparents ran the cafe until 1949, before relocating to Sydney, Australia.

“Our families are very grateful to the city and district government for restoring the cafe,” he said.

Klinger firstly came to Shanghai 1987 when his friend John Zhu showed him the Hongkou where he grew up. The couple came back again in 2007 in a Shanghai Jewish Tour with Dvir Bar-Gal, an Israeli journalist, is trying to restore Shanghai’s Jewish past.

“We went to the original location of the café that has changed much, but I recognized a distinctive wall of the former café,” he said. The wall with special decoration can be found in the new café now.

“My parents often told me that while in Shanghai they never encountered any hostility, any anti-Semitism, any unfriendlyness from the Chinese people,” he said.

“May the friendship between the Chinese people and Jewish people last forever,” Klinger said.

He said he also came to the reopening ceremony of his uncle Kurt Mosberg who was a main operator of the café. 

“He was very much wanted to be here, but he is 96 years old and his health did not allow him to make the trip from Australia,” Klinger said. His uncle held his wedding at the White Horse Inn.

Klinger had been to Shanghai for seven times and he said he loves the city every time.

"One time, we came to Dalian for my son's wedding with his Chinese wife Lucy Cao. After the wedding,we came to Shanghai immediately," he said.

Metro


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend