The founding of the Caféte

In 1986 the Studentwerk decided to close the cafeteria on the southern campus where the Faculty of Mathematics and Camputer Science and the Faculty of Physics were located. A group of students didn't like that at all, because their coffee supply was now endangered. So they were determined to launch their own cafeteria.

Despite a rusty start the Caféte became a fixed part of the student life on the southern campus. But the number of customers was severly reduced when first the Faculty of Physics (2001), then the Institute of Stochastics together with the Center for Statistics (2008) and then the Institue of Computer Science (2009) moved to the northern campus. But thanks to the almost proverbial coffee addiction of mathematicians the Caféte survived all these strokes of fate.

In the beginning of 2009 the "Caféten Kollektiv e.V." (e.V. = registered society) was founded which since then runs this oasis at the Mathematical Institute.

Principles and Self-conception

We are a collective which means we practice decision-making by consensus. So if one of us is against something, it simply won't be done. Thereby all of us are comitted to our desicions and resolutions. Despite that we are no homogeneous group but have quite different opinions on many subjects.

The quality of our products is very important to us. One of our distributors is Ökotopia (www.oektopia.org), who supplies us with alternatively traded and certified organic coffee and tea.

... and what about now?

By now it is impossible to imagine the Mathematical Institue without the Caféte! Some just drop in for a mug of coffee or a sandwich in between lectures, while others stay a little longer to chat, play or simply take a break.

At the moment we are 22 collectivists who work behind the counter, as purchasers or who help organizing the Caféte. Most of us landed here through our studies of Maths or Physics and some just found us by chance. If this descripiton made you curious and you would like to know more about us or if you want to see all this with your own eyes, then come around!