Stock Photo - PRODUCTION - 28 August 2023, Saxony, Bad Düben/ Ot Tiefensee: At the Sommerfeld bakery in Bad Düben's Tiefensee district, master baker Gerd Sommerfeld and his daughters, journeywoman baker Jana and master baker Annett, package the ten-centimeter-long Mehdicke pumpernickel. They have been making the pastry, for which Eilenburg baker Oskar Mehdicke received an imperial patent in 1909, for many years according to his secret recipe and the imperial patent from the time of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Lovers from all over Germany, even from Japan and Switzerland, pick up the sweet pastries in the store or have them sent to them by mail. The recipe for the 100,000 or so pumpernickels produced each year is not revealed, of course; all that is known is the high proportion of sugar and honey and crushed hazelnuts. The baker's family has particularly high demand for the pastry, which is known as a nerve food, during the Christmas season, for which preparations are already underway. Photo: Waltraud Grubitzsch/dpa. - Bad Düben/ Ot Tiefensee/Saxony/Germany