Finding truly homemade baked goods isn’t all that easy these days. Of course, Berlin has plenty of unique spots for coffee and pastries—from the extraordinary bike café to Berlin’s first crematorium, where you can also enjoy a cup of coffee today. So the capital certainly isn’t lacking in unique options. But which places are still as truly traditional and authentic as they used to be? One of them is the Schroeter Family Pastry Shop & Bakery, where they still bake using traditional artisanal methods to this day. You’ll find it at Enzianstraße 1 in Berlin-Lichterfelde, just a short walk from the Botanischer Garten S-Bahn station.
The roots of today’s business date back to 1957, when Horst Kühnel founded the bakery. Later, Fred Kühnel took over the business and, over the decades, turned it into a fixture in the neighborhood around the Botanical Garden. Frank Schroeter plays a special role in the bakery’s history. He joined the business as an apprentice back in 1976, learned the baking trade there, and remained connected to the bakery for decades afterward. More than 40 years later, he would eventually take over as manager himself.
When Fred Kühnel retired in 2018 after 62 years, Frank Schroeter took over the business where his own professional career had begun more than four decades earlier. Since then, he has continued to run the bakery together with his family. His wife Doris, as well as his son Tim and daughter Jennifer, are or have been involved in the family business. Tim Schroeter also represents the next generation of the trade, as he is a trained master pastry chef. The bakery’s tradition at this location now stretches back nearly 70 years.
What makes this pastry shop special isn’t just its long history, but above all the way its products are still made today. Instead of relying on industrial mass-produced goods, numerous baked goods are handmade using time-tested recipes . Trained bakers and pastry chefs craft bread, rolls, cakes, tarts, and various pastries here. The shop relies on classic ingredients and traditional production methods. Frank Schroeter told the B.Z. that, among other things , the bakery uses butter, eggs, and milk instead of premixed ingredients . Sourdough and traditional recipes also continue to play an important role in the bakery. In addition, according to the family, they use organic flour from the region and pure butter.
The selection at the counter is correspondingly large. In addition tonumerous types of bread and rolls, there are classic cakes and tarts. The assortment includes, for example , apple cake, carrot cake, coconut cake, quark-mandarin cake, poppy seed cake, and cherry “Eierschecke.” Depending on the season, other specialties such as strawberry slices or plum cake are added.
