Schon mal gefragt, wo das Brot aus Backshops eigentlich herkommt? Schon mal gewundert, wie ein Brötchen 10 Cent kosten kann? Jemals wissen wollen, was in unser Brot reinkommt?
Man kann jammern, dass die Brotqualität bei uns immer schlechter und billiger wird. Oder man kann etwas dagegen tun und feines Brot herstellen.
Und das machen wir seit dem Oktober 2016 in Berlin.
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Have you ever asked yourself where the bread in the cheap bakeries comes from? Have you ever wondered how it is possible that a roll costs only 10 cents? Have you ever wanted to know what they put in the bread we eat?
You can moan about the quality of our bread getting cheaper and worse. Or you can do something against it and produce fine bread yourself.
And that is what we do in Berlin since October 2016.
Ein Film von Carl von Karstedt
Dort unterstützte er ein Team aus jungen Ukrainern dabei, eine Mobile Bäckerei in Gang zu setzen, sodass darin wieder gebacken werden kann. Die Bäckerei steht in Apostolove im Süden des Landes.
Während Florian Domberger die technische Funktionsweise vermittelte, zeigte Reiner Dietl, ein Bäckermeister aus Bayern, wie Teige gemacht, gefaltet und schließlich gebacken werden. Nun entstehen in der Mobilen Bäckerei täglich mehrere hundert Brote für die Leute nahe der Frontlinie.
Möglich gemacht wird dieses Projekt von der Hilfsorganisation Space-Eye, die das Backen der Brote und dessen Verteilung finanziert. Spenden werden weiterhin benötigt, denn immer wieder geht etwas kaputt, fällt aus, muss erneuert werden.
Gespendet werden kann direkt hier: https://space-eye.org/backstube
Wer im Kommentarfeld ein kleines "Via Domberger" hinterlässt erleichtert uns nachzuvollziehen, wie viele Spenden wir konkret haben mobilisieren können. Danke!
Owner, baker and driver
*1969/Augsburg - professional forwarder. 18 years overseas: California, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia, Switzerland. He used to import his bread from Germany until he started to bake bread himself. A career changer, who learnt his trade in Eberswalde. Married to Vanessa.
Sale
*1965/Bandar Utama - Flight Attendant, trainer and adventuress. Lived in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia and in Switzerland. Able to speak bread in six different languages. Passionate trainer and saleswoman. Married to Florian.
Master baker
*1972/Eberswalde - master baker with the hobbies of baking and networking. Owner of the bakery Wiese in Eberswalde and chief technology officer. Passionate businessman, trainer, pragmatic achiever and creative mind.
Master baker and operatios manager
*1974/ Eisenhüttenstadt - Master baker and craftsman with a passion. Ralf left the conventional bakery many years ago and joined us. He has been with Domberger Brot-Werk since the beginning and is considered our first employee. In the fall of 2016, he opened the bakery in Moabit as head baker together with the Domberger family and is now not only one of the main training bakers, but also the operations manager of the company. In his private life, Ralf is very family-oriented, loves to travel and always has an open ear for everyone.
Communication, Human Resources and Sale
*1995/Berlin - studied psychology and writes about Berlin gastronomy on her blog marianne-rennella.com. This is also how Florian Domberger got to know Marianne and how she now writes, photographs and communicates for Domberger Brot-Werk. Marianne can also be found in sales from time to time and organizes the team parties.
Master baker and operations manager
*1986/California - Ben originally worked there as a truck driver. He was in Berlin for the first time in 2009 and worked in the bakery SoLuna am Südstern. He returned in 2013 after working as a pâtissier in a French fine dining restaurant in California and as a product developer in a large bakery. From 2013 to 2016 he then made his master baker in the ufa bakery and was manager of the wood-fired bakery, which even became his own brand: "Ben's bakery". After two years in Australia, he finally returned to Berlin in December 2018 - and to us! Our master baker Ralf and Ben had met in the ufa bakery, which led to the contact with Florian. Since then it was somehow certain: Ben will come to the Domberger Brot-Werk one day. We are happy that this day has come.
Baker
Kaohsiung - that's where Chao-I comes from, a town in southwest Taiwan. She already worked in a bakery in Taipei before coming to Berlin a few years ago. She didn't do a concrete apprenticeship as a baker, but simply baked on it. She has years of professional experience and a lot of motivation and joy in the baking trade. When she's not busy producing the wonderful food, she's concerned with how food is made. She studies food technology at the Technical University because she wants to understand the matter from the ground up. Then one day Chaoii wants to contribute to less food being wasted and thrown away, to get away from a throw-away society and to focus on sustainability.
Baker
*23.11.1993 - Al-Raqqa, a town in Syria, near the Turkish border. In 2015, however, he had to leave his homeland because of the war and came to Berlin at the age of 22. Mo quickly learned German, made German friends, and was able to work as an Arabic translator in an aid organisation. Mo did translation because he was no longer able to do his actual job as an electrician. He had lost his left hand in a bomb attack in Syria. However, he lacked the work in the trade and by a lucky coincidence he got to know a customer of the Domberger Brot-Werk within the framework of the aid organisation. He suggested that he introduce himself to us. And so it came about that Mo is now an integral part of our team. Through baking, Mo discovered his love for bread and a new craft for himself. He is also happy, Mo says, because the atmosphere here is so beautiful. The team welcomed him like a family.
Baker
*1993 in Baden-Wuerttemberg - Matthias grew up in Schwarzwald, but after graduating from high school he moved to the big city of Hamburg, where he did an apprenticeship as a cook. He made experiences in gastronomy and the hotel business, worked at night, on weekends, on holidays - until he realized that he would now rather learn how to bake bread. Matthias says that an internship in a bakery in Bavaria awakened his fascination for baking with sourdough. The bread he tried at Sosein.Restaurant has been the best he had ever eatento this point and he decided to make it himself one day. In 2018 Matthias had also done an internship with us and had not forgotten us for two years. When he realized that he could probably wait a long time in Hamburg for a new, promising bakery to open, he moved to Berlin. Now there he is, learning to make dough, shape pretzels, press rolls - and perhaps one day he'll bring the art of sourdough to Hamburg. His favourite bread among the Domberg breads is clearly the Beutebrot, beautifully dark-baked. If he has cooked something good for himself - and it's usually good - then the Beute is also excellent for enjoying the last bit of sauce. Even Matthias, as a trained cook, can only sign: nothing beats bread with butter, though.
Baker
*1987 in Seoul, South Korea. In 2015 Han Kyul and his wife moved to Germany to do their doctorate in sociology. However, because this did not quite work out financially, Han Kyul started working as a baker. Only in Germany had he learned to love bread, before that he had not liked it at all. In Münster he did an apprenticeship as a baker for one year, but longed to learn the most original form of the baking trade: baking without industrial yeast. So he came to Berlin to the Domberger Brot-Werk. As a man of nature, as Han Kyul calls it, it is fantastic to come into direct contact with natural raw materials and to process them with his hands. He believes that this wonderful food can make such a big difference in society that he no longer needs a doctorate in sociology.
Baker
*1986/Santos, Brazil - Filipi worked only briefly as an interpreter for English and Portuguese after he finished his studies in São Paolo, because he quickly realized that sitting in front of a computer was not for him. So he worked as an English teacher for many years, but his desire to learn French drew him on a trip to France and Europe, where his interest in self-sustaining production was awakened. Back in São Paolo, the dusty sourdough baking book Filipi found in his grandma's house was the beginning of his love for bread baking. After a few years of hobby baking, he and his girlfriend moved to Romania to join a political, self-sufficient collective where they brewed beer, fermented and, most importantly, baked bread from vegan, local ingredients. When it became clear to Filipi that he would be moving to Berlin, he applied to Domberger Brot-Werk to expand his knowledge of sourdough baking and to continue working in an artisanal way.
Baker
*1982/Constantine, Algeria - Studied mechanical industry in Algeria and came to Berlin at the age of 30. Here he first began an apprenticeship as a painter, but actually he wanted to do something with food. For a long time he worked in a Michelin star restaurant as a kitchen assistant and learned a lot about Berlin gastronomy and about the craft of patisserie. Sam realized more and more, however, that he was actually drawn to the craft of baking bread, and his desire to become a baker became more and more concrete. So concretely that he finally applied to us and has now realized his dream. Sam is now doing a real baker's apprenticeship at Domberger Brot-Werk.
Baker
*/Seoul, South Korea — Jae Sok had actually already started baking with his hamburger restaurant. He opened it in Seoul and was responsible for the kitchen, menu development and burger buns. He did this for three years and during this time he became more and more enthusiastic about baking and his desire to become a baker became more and more concrete. When Jae Sok moved to Berlin together with his wife in 2019, he first worked in a Korean restaurant because of the language. No sooner had he learned enough German than he applied for a job with us and has now been with us since the spring of 2022. His wife also works as a sourdough baker in Berlin and one day they would like to open a bakery together.
Baker
*1982/Kaiserslautern — Lam came to sourdough in 2011 when his roommate in his Schöneberger WG started baking very plain but solid rye bread. So Lam started baking bread himself on the side, but didn't follow a precise recipe, which resulted in a lot of qualitative variations. He mainly worked as a conductor after he finished his music studies in Vienna. However, the conducting competition for fame and attention finally led him to end his career as a freelance conductor and retire to Prignitz. There, together with his husband, he rebuilt a small cottage with the idea of setting up a small one-man bakery there. Exactly this fascination for small-cell brought Lam to us - now he learns baking with recipe among other things in our bread bridges. In the future, he would like to set up a bread association or cooperative in the Prignitz region, where the customer structure means that baked goods can be produced in clearly plannable quantities, thus avoiding overproduction.
Baker
*1979/Warendorf (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Miriam is actually a qualified camerawoman by profession and has shot documentaries at home and abroad. As if fate had already foreseen it, one of her first long documentaries was called "Der Weiße mit dem Schwarzbrot" (The White Man with the Black Bread) and was about a German's attempt to set up a sourdough bakery in Mali. However, Miriam has always loved bread and missed it especially during her numerous stays abroad. Then, in 2012, she started her first sourdough and ten years later, she finally joined us to learn how to bake professionally. Because Miriam has the idea to move to the countryside with her family soon and to supply the neighborhood with good bread there someday.
Baker
*1997/Offenbach – After high school, Hannes first travelled the world, before he joined the German Air Force for two years. He subsequently moved to Gießen to study ecotrophology, which he completed in Berlin in the winter of 2023. Even though he enjoyed his studies, Hannes noticed that he doesn’t harbor a big passion for science, and prefers to work with his hands instead. This mostly became apparent when he started working in the production of a Berlin startup making ice cream. Manufacturing a product from the beginning to the end, including the purchasing, production and sales, enthused him. The concept of Domberger Brot-Werk, then, was just what he needed. One day, Hannes would like to start his own business to produce good food himself. He doesn’t know yet whether that will be a bakery, but baking will definitely play a role.
Commercial support
*1998/Goch in North Rhine-Westphalia - In 2016 Nikolai moved to Berlin to study Sustainable Management and found that the location was a good decision and that he loves Berlin. Nikolai really discovered his great passion for food during his trip to Japan in 2018/2019, where he also finds that there is a surprisingly active scene of Tokyo-Neapolitan style pizza that excited him. Back in Germany, his focus remained on pizza (still his favorite food) and then evolved further to bread. Just in time, two weeks before the start of the pandemic, he started his sourdough and got the bread baking book No. 4 by Lutz Geißler, which exclusively bakes with sourdough. At that time Nikolai lived in Moabit and thus came across the Domberger Brot-Werk - in November 2020 he then did an internship with us. As his studies were slowly coming to an end, he realized that he would much rather work professionally with good food than hang on to a master's degree. Through an acquaintance from the Domberger Brot-Werk, he ended up in a new, small production for vegan ice cream, directly as product developer and production manager. There, Nikolai flourished and was able to work freely and creatively and continue his education. When the project unfortunately failed despite fantastic ice cream, it was seamless for Nikolai to join us. The position in the commercial area had just become available and Nikolai decided to do something that tied in with his studies after all. Meanwhile, being surrounded by fantastic food and craft still makes the office job a joy for Nikolai.
Baker
*1974/Seongnam in South Korea - Actually, Yong Ho is an evangelical pastor by profession and did a Master of Divinity at the Methodist Theological University in Seoul. But when he spent some time in Germany as part of his studies, he fell in love with rye bread. Then in 2018, he started baking bread as a hobby in Korea and discovered his great joy in it. He made his own sourdoughs and started baking yeast-free breads. However, he often experienced baking failures that he couldn't quite explain. So he decided he wanted to learn more about bread - in Germany. He began training as a baker in Marburg in 2021, but there the focus there was not enough on the craft and sourdough for him. Through the interview with Florian Domberger in Lutz Geißler's podcast, Yong Ho became aware of us and applied in Berlin. At the Domberger Brot-Werk, he says, he is finally learning to bake. His goal as a pastor is to one day open his own sourdough bakery for charity, where people with handicaps can help and "bake nature-friendly bread that does no harm to the nature God has entrusted to us."
Baker
*1989/Hamburg -Hannes actually comes from social work and worked for several years as a social worker in the field of addiction disorders in Hesse. In order to embark on a long trip through Europe, he took some professional time off and at the end of his trip he worked in Sweden, Slovenia and Spain in various projects and in the hospitality industry. During a three-month employment in a hostel in the mountains of Gran Canaria, Hannes had the task of baking fresh sourdough bread for the guests every day. During this time, he discovered baking for himself and the subject never let go of him. It became clear to him that he wanted to learn the baking trade, especially with sourdough. Already on his way back to Germany, he applied at the Domberger Brot-Werk and joined our team at the beginning of 2023. Now, Hannes says, he enjoys getting fresh bread out of the oven every day anew.
Baker
*1993/Berlin - Melina studied fine arts and political science in her hometown and then worked for a long time in art education as a freelance workshop leader and art mediator. Melina says she probably baked her first bread at home when she was a child; she didn't get into sourdough until late 2019 when a friend gave her some of hers. Which was a good fit, because she's actually a "little fermentation nerd," puts in a lot herself (her final project was a mobile fermentation cart) and makes tempeh and kombucha at home. Melina's art also revolves around food, which is more at the intersection of art and social practice. She is concerned with how people come together, how moments of sharing, exchange, and participation can occur, and how art can be made accessible - and mostly through culinary interventions and installations.
Baker
*1997/Ukraine - Ivan started working in the catering industry at a very young age. After school, he worked as a chef in Odessa, where he got to know baking on a larger scale. Bread played an important role on the bistro menu - a type of brioche to be precise, made with egg yolk, vegetable oil, linseed and chia seeds. This experience sparked Ivan's interest in baking bread. When he moved to Berlin in February 2022, he started working with sourdough for the first time and was thrilled. Ivan initially returned to his profession as a chef, working at the Normal bar and helping to open the wood-fired restaurant ITA in Prenzlauer Berg. But he actually wanted to become a baker. One day, friends advised him to apply for a job with us. Now at Domberger, Ivan says, he is finally surrounded by people who are happy to share their knowledge with him. And bring him a little closer to his dream of owning his own bakery or sandwich store.
Baker
*1991/Zagreb - Born in Croatia, grew up in the Netherlands. After graduating from high school in Amsterdam, Barbara moved back to Croatia to study fine arts. In 2017, she came to Berlin for an internship in an art gallery and stayed much longer than originally planned - Barbara finally joined us in February 2024. About herself, she says she is quite a nerd when it comes to topics that combine food, science and history. During her time at university, she became increasingly interested in baking, cooking and everything to do with fermentation. After graduating, however, Barbara initially worked in content creation and marketing until she realized that the office job wasn't really making her happy. Given her interest in food and after a few attempts at baking sourdough bread at home, she decided to apply for a job at Domberger Brot-Werk. Although it was all very new to her at first, Barbara was immediately excited to have people around her who were just as interested in learning more about the traditional baking craft and passing on their knowledge.
Baker
*1992/Cologne - before moving to Berlin in early 2024, Ute lived in beautiful Bolzano for three years, where she studied Eco-Social Design. She is a trained designer and builds mobile kitchens for the Über den Tellerrand e.V. association. Together with her sister, she organizes cooking events on the topics of regional and seasonal food and regenerative agriculture. They take their mobile kitchens to fields, community gardens and markets so that local people can join in the chopping, cooking and tasting. Like so many others, Ute developed her passion for sourdough during the pandemic and worked her way deeper into baking with the help of Lutz Geisler's baking books. She discovered the Domberger Brot-Werk in Markthalle Neun and applied to learn the baking trade at a professional level. In the long term, Ute would like to continue combining her passions of food and design. She doesn't quite know what that might look like yet, but maybe she'll build a bicycle bakery one day, she says.
Baker
*1996/Berlin - When Felix was just 9 months old, his parents moved with him to Cape Town in South Africa. Felix grew up there, but moved to another end of the world for his bachelor's degree. He studied environmental sciences and sustainability in Seattle, financing his studies by working seasonally on a fishing boat during the semester break. In Alaska, Felix helped with wild salmon fishing and worked very hard, but ate the best salmon of his life. After a few years in the USA, he decided to come (back) to Berlin to get to know the city of his birth and fulfill his wish to live in Europe. He moved in with his sister and discovered the Domberger Brot-Werk during a walk through the neighborhood. The idea came to him to deepen his hobby of baking and apply for a job with us. Now he is excited to learn more about baking bread with sourdough and German bread culture.