In the last century the small town Ilmenau, situated in the middle of the Thuringian Forest, became a health resort.
Due to the numerous hotels and boarding-houses, medical institutions that worked with cold water and different other spa buildings, the beautiful promenades all around the town with their resting places and attractive vantage points, Ilmenau was known as a popular seaside- and health resort.
Even when the cold-water-sanatoriums were closed, Ilmenau kept its meaning as a place of "summer freshness" and reached its height as a health resort at the turn of the century.

In Ilmenau there had always been a high number of excellent restaurants that competed for the popularity with the guests.

Also the front part of the "Lindenstraße", between the former cinema and the millrace, was an important location for the restaurant history of Ilmenau.

In the year 1829 the oldest confectionery of Ilmenau was founded there by Friedrich Dittmar which became a famous venue for the visitors in the evening.
On the 9th of July 1845 the first musical performance took place in front of the confectionery and was very well received at once.

From 1885 to 1901 August Dittmar, the son of Friedrich Dittmar, managed the shop. In this time the building next to the confectionery was pulled down and instead a café was erected. This edifice and also its interior decoration were built in the neo-rococo style. The existence of a steam heating and electric light, generated in the in-house power station, turned the café into an attraction.

Shortly after the turn of the century the building was called "Wiener Café" for the first time. In course of time the possessors changed frequently. Several conversions changed the face of the edifice and also its name.

After the Second World War the so-called "Konsum-Kaffee" became "HO-restaurant Lindenhof" in the middle of the 50s. After another reconstruction in 1984/85 the café was closed in the year 1991.