Bakery Darmstadt
Until 1969, the Darmstadt bakery, one of the two bakeries in Harxheim, was located at Obergasse 25. Besides the bakery, a grocery store was also operated.
Obergasse 25 in 1909
Image source: Franz Götz (detail from a postcard from Harxheim from 1909)
The residential house at Obergasse 25 is a plastered half-timbered building. A year of construction has not been handed down. In the last decades of the 19th century, however, brick buildings prevailed, so the building is likely to have been erected before that. Behind the house, a barn adjoins at right angles, leading to the house into a vaulted cellar at ground level. Deeper cellars were not built because the terrain was very wet at that time.
In 1894 the property was purchased by the baker Philip Darmstadt. He established a bakery and a grocery store here, which were continued by the next generation until 1969. From the mid-1950s, the grandson also practiced the bakery trade here with his father for a few years, but later changed his career.
The bakery had a large baking oven with a baking surface of 3.20 m by 2.60 m area, which was heated with briquettes. Not only the bakery goods were baked here, the local population could also hand in their cakes and Christmas cookies for baking. Each family placed an identification mark on their cake-covered baking tray so that they could reliably identify their own cake after baking.
The product range of the bakery was of course much more modest in the past than it is today. During the week there was rye bread and mixed bread, as well as box white bread to order. Buns were only available on weekends, the offer then included milk rolls as well as pair and Spitzweck.
Founder grandson Egon Darmstadt as a young journeyman baker 1955
Image source: E. Darmstadt
Former entrance to the bakery and grocery store of the Darmstadt family.
Image source: E.-L. Happel
The offer in the colonial store was rather small compared to a supermarket of today. Customers grew their own fruit and vegetables in their gardens; milk, butter and meat products were available directly from the producer. In the colonial store, people bought cereal products such as flour, semolina and pearl barley, dried pulses, rice, sugar, salt, coffee beans and spices. Special treats included herring pickled in salt from the barrel. Tobacco products were also available. Of course, there was no self-service. Most of the goods were sold in bulk. They were stored in large drawers and weighed out to the customer by the baker’s wife in the desired quantity and packed in a brown paper lace bag – an earlier form of today’s “unpackaged” concepts.
At that time, a staircase in front of the house led to the sales room. Here locals regularly met and exchanged information – gladly sitting on the stairs – about the latest events in the village. So after a little chat one was up to date again.
To the left of the house in the garden is still preserved a dovecote from the 1950s. In the past, the inhabitants of the house – like many other Harxheim farms – also kept pigeons in a dovecote under the roof. Provided with a good filling, they were considered a welcome treat – not only in bad times – and enriched the menu.
References:
Conversations with Egon and Erika Darmstadt
