Text of Master Guildsman’s Certificate: It is the decision of the Governing Council that the Gingerbread Maker and Master Baker, Hermann Löschner, be appointed a full member of the Guild. Having shaken hands on the assurance of his intention to carry out all duties and obligations of a Master Guildsman, the same Hermann Löschner has been presented with this Master Guildsman’s Certificate. Pulsnitz, this 31st day of January 1884. Signatures of Grand Master Hermann Löschner (father of the above H.L.) and Master Emeritus Emil Grossmann.

The town of Pulsnitz is known far and wide as the gingerbread town. It was on the 1st of January 1558 that the lord of the manor of Pulsnitz, derer von Schlieben, first granted the bakers of Pulsnitz the privilege of adding the baking of gingerbread to the services they offered. From what was initially a secondary occupation amongst Pulsnitz bakers, a craft in its own right arose, which has kept its traditional skills right up to the present day. Since1992 the name “Pulsnitzer Pfefferkuchen” has been protected, so that only gingerbread baked within the town of Pulsnitz may be so-called.

In the middle of the 17th century the original house of the Pfefferküchlerei Löschner was built. It was in this house in 1813 that Hermann Löschner founded the gingerbread bakery of the same name, and it is today the oldest family gingerbread bakery still in existence in the town of Pulsnitz.

As in those days, our specialities are still made from top quality ingredients, using recipes passed down the generations in writing or by word of mouth. Only these circumstances allow us to guarantee the excellent quality of our unique and inimitable gingerbread. This is why in the traditions of our trade we say: “You’ll not find here any mass-produced bread, for we still bake with heart and hands instead.”