Bäckerei Jünemann in Bremen - a Family Story

When I came looking for a house to rent in Bremen in 2019, I mentioned to my now landlady, that my father was born into a baker's family. The family bakery "Bäckerei Jünemann" was located in "Neustadt" quarter in Bremen. "Bäckerei Jünemann?!" my landlady remembered- "they used to have the best cheesecake in Bremen!". And this is the story, of how she decided to let her house to us.

My Grandfather

The story of the Bäckerei Jünemann begins with my grandfather. Heinrich Jünemann who was born in 1910. His birthplace was Eichsfeld, Duderstadt near Göttingen. His father was a roofer who died during an accident at work, and his mother died shortly after. He was orphaned at the young age of 8 years old and was sent to an orphanage near Hannover. When he was 14 he began a baker's apprenticeship in Bremen.

He met my grandmother Maria Stolowski, whose family came from Silesia, now Poland. They married in 1937 and 1938 their first son Heinrich (but called Heinz) was born. My grandfather served in Italy during the Second World War, where he was injured and sent back to Germany. He and my grandmother had two more sons, Willehad (b 1941), and Wolfgang (b 1943) who were all conceived during the Second World War when my grandfather was on leave at home.

My grandmother Maria is remembered as a hard-working and efficient woman. Bringing up three children during wartime on her own was very difficult. My uncle Heinz remembers how, at age six, he came back late with his brothers to meet his mother in one of the bunkers. On arrival, she slapped him and told him "his brothers could be late, but he as the eldest had to function!" "Deine Brüder dürfen dass, aber du must funkionieren".

One day in 1944, my grandmother spent her day during a bomb raid in a bunker under Bremen cathedral. When they returned to their home, they found their flat destroyed. My eldest uncle remembers how they pushed a pram with his brother in it through bombed Bremen to find shelter at their grandparents.

After the war, my grandfather Heinrich, briefly worked for the police, before leasing a bakery in Bremen, in the Schopenhauer Straße in 1947. My father, Bernhard was born in 1950, as the last child. In 1959 they built their new bakery in Bremen. Bäckerei Jünemann in der Thedinghauser Straße.

All my uncles became bakers. My father was the exception as he became a journalist, although it was his job to deliver the bread rolls on his bicycle to the households when he was young. My uncle Heinz and Wolfgang became "Bäckermeister" (Master Bakers) and my uncle Willehad was a "Konditormeister" (Pastry Chef).

My uncle Heinz left Bremen to move to Berlin and later became the CEO of the German Baker's Guild. My uncle Willehad took over running the bakery after the death of my grandfather in 1972, when he was just 62. After my grandmother died in 1989, he continued running the bakery as sole owner.

My uncle Wolfgang tragically became ill with colon cancer and died in 1985 at the young age of 42.

There are stories my uncle Willehad told me about the war that I found particularly interesting. After the war, not many households had a working oven. So people would bring their cake to his bakery so he could bake it for them in his oven. The problem, he recounted, was that every cake recipe was different. So he reworked each dough in his bakery and then put it in the oven because he did not want their customers to be disappointed.

It was the responsibility of his younger brothers to give each pot a number and organise them, so each customer would take home the correct cake.

What I remember

I grew up in Frankfurt, so far away from the bakery in Bremen. I do remember the bakery though, the smell of freshly baked bread and my uncle waking up at 1 am every morning to go to work.

Most of all I remember the cookie stand of my uncle. He made the best Schwarzweissgebäck, Florentines, Speculatius, and other yummy cookies.

My Uncle Willehad retired in 2004, and there was nobody in the family who wanted to continue running the bakery. Small bakeries in Germany now find it difficult to compete with the larger supermarkets. Also, people are not willing to pay the price for the work that goes into handmade cookies and cakes. The bakery is now leased to a larger baker, who sells his goods there, but produces them in a larger facility than what we have in the venue.

I try to keep some of the recipes alive, by posting them on this blog and sharing them with you.

Recipes from my Uncle Willehad

Recipes from my Uncle Heinz