Stock Photo - PRODUCTION - 28 August 2023, Saxony, Bad Düben/ Ot Tiefensee: In the Sommerfeld bakery in Bad Düben's Tiefensee district, master baker Gerd Sommerfeld holds the certificate from the imperial patent for Mehdicke's pumpernickel in his hand. The pastry, for which the Eilenburg baker Oskar Mehdicke received the imperial patent in 1909, he and his daughters, master baker Annett and baker's apprentice, have been producing 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