We believe that the taste of true gingerbread is inseparably connected with the history of the region and the people who created it. Join us on a journey through time - discover the story of Bardo gingerbread with us, a tradition we continue by supporting artists and local heritage.
The traditions of Bardzkie Pierniki are documented at least as far back as 1504. In pre-war Bardo, gingerbread was baked by many generations of master gingerbread makers. Eagerly purchased by pilgrims arriving at the foot of Our Lady of Bardo, whose statue is still venerated today in the local basilica, these small limewood figurines helped spread the craft of Bardo gingerbread makers across the country and far beyond Europe.
The gingerbread history of Bardo became an inspiration for us to begin our own gingerbread adventure. For many years, gingerbread made according to original recipes and ideas by Magdalena Topolanek could be found at traditional fairs and craft markets across Lower Silesia.
Since 1 August 2020, under the name “Bardzkie Pierniki - Fabryka - Magdalena Topolanek”, we have been running our own gingerbread workshop in Bardo, in a very special place - a townhouse where, even before 1942, the Gingerbread Factory of the Prussian-born Robert Gerlich, “Robert Gerlich’s Honigkuchenfabrik”, operated. The original gingerbread workshop was founded in 1842 by Robert’s father, Joseph Gerlich.
Today, the aroma of honey and warming spices once again fills the former gingerbread factory. What is more, our relationship with the descendants of the factory’s former owners has brought back the original recipes for the specialities once baked here. We are very proud that, in this historic place, we can bring the legend of Bardzkie Pierniki back to life - continuing a centuries-old tradition, recreating old recipes, while also giving these unique gingerbread treats and cakes new, original forms and flavours.
Joseph Gerlich (1816-1894), at the age of 26 and already a master gingerbread maker, begins his independent gingerbread-making activity in Bardo. His workshop is located in a building belonging to the property at 28 Główna Street, formerly Hauptstrasse 39. His products are sold at church stalls during pilgrimages to Bardo, as well as during visits to nearby fairs and parish festivals.
Joseph moves production to the property at Ring 162, today Rynek 4, where he establishes the first gingerbread factory in Bardo. At Hauptstrasse 39, he continues to run a shop and a restaurant with a confectionery.
The Gingerbread Factory is inherited by Joseph’s son, Robert Gerlich (1862-1943), who is 27 years old at the time. Robert introduces revolutionary changes in production and product quality, creates modern principles of distribution and mail-order sales, becomes the first in Bardo to coat gingerbread with chocolate, and sells small cakes in attractive promotional packaging.
Robert Gerlich prepares a project to rebuild the gingerbread factory. The modest building with a gable roof is to be replaced by an impressive four-storey townhouse. The reconstruction plan includes two baking rooms: one in the basement level and one on the raised ground floor, today occupied by bank premises. The basement level is also planned to include a coal store and storage room, the ground floor a product packing room, the first floor a front-facing apartment for the owner’s family and additional storage rooms at the rear, and the second floor additional bedrooms.
Robert Gerlich, at the age of 57, transfers the Gingerbread Factory to his nephew Max Prause. Following his father’s example, he keeps the restaurant and café on Główna Street. Max Prause (1891-1942), aged 28, marries Martha Meissner in February 1919, takes over part of the family business and continues operating it under the name Robert Gerlich’s Honigkuchenfabrik, Inhaber Max Prause.
The gingerbread factory also serves as a place of training for young apprentices of the craft. Among the students taking their exams in 1933 are the two sons of master Max Prause: thirteen-year-old Hans, who after the war continues the gingerbread-making tradition in Ochtrup, Germany, and ten-year-old Max Jr.
In pre-war Bardo, then Wartha, apart from Max Prause’s Gingerbread Factory, six other businesses are active in the confectionery trade: Alois Hentschel’s Bakery, Confectionery and Gingerbread Workshop; Robert Gerlich’s Café; Franz Prause’s Bakery; Alder Bakery and Café; August Neumann’s Confectionery, Café and Gingerbread Factory; and Haus Klieeisen - Confectionery. Gingerbread parades are held in the town, featuring a gingerbread house and children dressed as Hansel and Gretel.
The company “Robert Gerlich’s Honigkuchenfabrik, Inhaber Max Prause” celebrates its 100th anniversary. For this occasion, Max Prause, the current owner, prepares a multi-page anniversary speech.
Hans Prause (1920-1968), who learned the gingerbread craft in his father Max Prause’s workshop in Bardo and passed his first exams there, opens a shop and later a bakery in Ochtrup, Germany. There, he continues the work of his ancestors, baking Bardo gingerbread according to old recipes under the family business name of Robert Gerlich and Max Prause.
Hans Prause celebrates the company’s 125th anniversary in Ochtrup.
Margarete Prause, Hans’s wife, announces the closure of the company “Warthaer Pfefferküchlerei gegründet 1842 Hans Prause, früher: R. Gerlich’s Honigkuchenfabrik Wartha, Bez. Breslau, Kardinal-von-Galen-Straße 18, 4430 Ochtrup/Westf.” After Hans’s death, his son Gottfried continues the gingerbread-making activity for several years, but ultimately decides to change profession and closes the business.
On 1 August, Magdalena Topolanek opens her gingerbread workshop in the former Bardo Gingerbread Factory. The brand “Bardzkie Pierniki - Fabryka”, previously known from fairs and the internet, gains its own home. Gingerbread returns to Bardo, and the spicy aroma once again fills the townhouse built by the Gerlich and Prause families.
Gottfried Prause, son of Hans Prause and grandson of Max Prause, visits Bardo and his grandfather’s Gingerbread Factory for the first time to recreate the historical recipes of Warthaer Pfefferkuchen, the historical Bardo gingerbread, together with Magdalena. In this way, we can rediscover the old Silesian flavours of Warthaer Bissen, Bardo Bites; Schokoladenkonfekt, Chocolate Confections; Fruchtecken, Fruit Corners; and Warthaer Bomben, Bardo Bombs.
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