Sorry, German Bread is Better than Yours.

According to the bread register of the German Institute for Bread (because, of course there is such a thing), there are now more than 3,200 officially recognized types of bread here. So what makes German Bread the BEST in the world?

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
02:23 The Heritage of German Bread
07:59 The “Art” of German Bread
12:11 Unique German Bread Traditions

Episode No. 154

S𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧 𝗠𝗘

[PeterPetermann]

i''m german living abroad, and i bake my own bread because the local bread is so bad.

[Espressokid]

One of the most typical German phrases occurs after returning to Germany like from vacation:
Q: "How was your trip?"
A: "It was wonderful! But they have no decent bread there."

[pqrstsma]

my dad went to Munich and Dusseldorf on a business trip for a few days in 1997, and wouldn't stop telling us about German rye bread for the next 20 years.... (he's from India)

[nerdtopiaball]

as a german, i refuse to recognize american, ,bread" as bread, it is a insult to bread.

[kevinkerkhoff]

I think most Germans can agree, that if there is one thing Germans miss when they are in foreign countries, it is their bread. You find good beer and sausages in other countries, but bread is always missed.

[solokom]

9:00 When German bakers are longer trained than US Police Officers. 😬

[StefanC]

If you never ate a fresh baked rye hazelnut bread, with sourdough, whole hazelnuts and sunflower and other seeds in it, with outmeal around: you haven't lived.
The world thinks that Germany is all about cars and beer, but in reality bread is our real passion.

[anticom]

Traditional small bakery business unfortunately is not booming due to high energy costs making it a struggle for them to survive. If you see a small German bakery (none of the bakery franchises) show some love and support them by buying a loaf even if you think that it’s expensive. 99% of the time you won’t regret it.

[JanDreier-HH]

Not sure you fully got your head wrapped around the model of German trade education.
1.) Gesellenbrief is not a bachelor by a far cry. At best an associates degree. But in reality it is not an academic degree, but a time-honored, well regarded, - well - trade degree.
2.) In the apprenticeship program, you do not do "internships". In fact, you are employed by a company - in this case bakery - and you actually get paid: 1. Ausbildungsjahr 680 €, 2. Ausbildungsjahr 755 €, 3. Ausbildungsjahr 885 €. The school element might be en block or in the traditional way, two days a week.
3.) This model applies not only to bakers, but to all "Ausbildungsberufe" (trade professions), whether they are bakers, electricians, plumbers, hairdresser or any of the other 324 Ausbildungsberufe. Yet, the pay can be different from trade to trade.
4.) You can own and run a bakery without any training if you so desire, but you need the "Meisterbrief" to take on apprentices.

[hellmalm]

Bread is so good in Europe. German bread very much resembles the bread we got in Sweden, but there's variations, but I also love French, Italian and Greek bread. Bread should not be an industri product but something handcrafted and treasured. With the history and culture we have in Europe it's no wonder our breads are the best in the world. Yes, I challenge you out there! European bread rules.

[paulm.sweazey]

Twenty-five years ago when I used to visit Höpfingen from California, there were Bäckereien and Metzgereien within a block of the house, and I was always so amazed to have FRESH bread every morning. Now I live here, but there are no more butchers, and we lost the last Höpfi-based bakery a year ago. There is one bakery left in town, bringing bread from somewhere else. I suspect that this is our own fault, opting to just buy the convenient stuff at Netto or Aldi or Lidl or Penny or…. We need to treasure what made this place special. I don't want this place to turn into an American strip mall.

Thanks again for a wonderful video piece on something that matters!

[witthyhumpleton]

To be fair, apprenticeship programs like this exist in other countries in Europe, but more importantly aren't unique to baking. Apprenticeships exist for almost every job you can imagine from baking to working with cars, and all of them tend to run 2 - 3 years.
And pretty much all of them end with you becoming a Geselle, and pretty much all of them allow you to study further for becoming a Meister.

[isitramt]

'Kleinere Brötchen backen' - to bake smaller rolls - Having lower resources (most times money)

[cesbi]

This was probably your smartest content choice ever. Grabbing every German's attention by playing into their bread patriotism, grabbing everybody else's attention by just the appropriate amount of rage baiting, but then ultimately delivering another one of your incredibly well-reseatched and highly educational videos. *Standing ovation*

Also: one hell of a thumbnail...

[RalfJosefFries]

German here - och, german culture, german tradition, centuries of experience....
When you are in germany and you walk through the streets, and there is then an bakery that has just taken fresh bread out of their oven - it plays no rule if you are american, german, chinese or turkish or from some planet from outer space: If you have an nose (or something that does the same as our nose) and you then get, by simply passsing by on the street, this smell of fresh backed bread or breadrolls, that´s dispersing from the backers oven, through the whole bakery, out of its door into the street... - you are simply hooked! And when you have then entered the backery, you see the bread in all its variations that is on-sale there, you get more of the smell, often then are there also tables where you can buy you an coffee, and the smell of the fresh-brewed coffee adds to the smell of the bread and the cakes.... be honest: It´s addiction - some few buys are sufficient and you cant stop it anymore! The german baker, nothing more than an well organised and highly respected kind of 😋😋😋

[JohnMckeown-dlcl]

The thing I miss the most from my years living in German is the food, especially the bread. Every village had a bakery with fresh bread, rolls and other goodies every morning, and everything was great. Having a freshly baked brötchen (or semmel) in the morning with butter and jam was a great way to start the day. Funny story: There was one bakery in the fussgängerzone in the city near me that ran the vent from the kitchen in the back out through the front of the store to spread the smell of freshly baked things into the street in front. It was almost impossible to pass without the urge to go in and get something.
Where I currently live, Spain, the bread is good too, but just good. No real variety and no good rye bread. No brötchen or bauerbrot, just wheat bread. The local Aldi and Lidl stores try, but they don't have a good local source. Good story, but good and bad. I love thinking about the good bread, but it makes me miss it and want to get on a plane to just get some of the fabulous bread.

[ulmerle]

You missed one thing in your research. There is even a bread museum here in my home town.
The German Bread Museum in Ulm

[NSelina]

gosh, Bernd das Brot
such an unhinged, fever dream of a show - in the best way. i love it

[brotgelehrt]

german baker here. Great video!
However, there are two errata in your account:
1) The "Gesellenbrief" is DQR (German Qualifications Framework) level 4, and thus considered below a university bachelors degree. The "Meisterbrief" is DQR level 6, and on the same level as a university bachelors degree.
2) There was a time, one needed to gather experience for several years before attempting to go to the Meisterschule (culinary school for master baker). But those times are no more. Nowadays a new Geselle can continue his/her training immediately after the Gesellenprüfung at the Meisterschule, if he/she has the necessary funds to do so, and feels up to the challenge.

[rigsbyrigged]

I am a Brit who has lived in Germany (NRW) for 31 years now. There is no comparison when it comes to bread. German bread is not only the best in the world, it is the most diverse. The same goes for the beer. So I guess the Germans are just great with yeast ;-) When my family visit from the UK, one of the things they most look forward to is the bread. One repeating thing they say is, “we can buy bread in the UK that looks like this, but it does not taste like this.”