The Old Gingerbread Bakery

Gingerbread being hand-made at Willi Baumann’s bakery in Reichelsheim-Beerfurth in the Odenwald region, some 70 kms (42 mls) south of Frankfurt, Dec. 1. The family business is one of oldest in the Odenwald and operates in the 11th generation, baking gingerbread as it did in 1785 without coloring, flavor enhancer or preservatives. Customers queue right in the bakehouse, buying ‘lebkuchen’ as it comes right out of the coal-heated oven.