Mr. Buschmann, do you mind telling us how you came to swap retire­ment for the class­room?

When I was approaching retire­ment in 2018, I started thinking about how I would spend my time after my active working life. Baking has always been my hobby and passion. That’s why I occa­sion­ally helped out in the bake­house at the Back­haus­fre­unde in Loss­burg or at demon­stra­tions for school­children and vaca­tion guests in the commu­nity bake­house in Alpirs­bach. One thing led to another and my friend, who is a master baker and voca­tional school teacher, offered me an appren­tice­ship at the Hein­rich Schick­hart School in Freuden­stadt for the bakery trade. And so, at the age of 60, I began my baker’s appren­tice­ship, on my own initia­tive and at my own expense, and without the backing of a training company.

That sounds exciting. What moti­vated you to pursue this partic­ular path?

Apart from my great passion for baking, it was also impor­tant to me to continue – and pass on – the long tradi­tion of baking bread. But that wasn’t the only reason: I also wanted to set an example and give hope to all those who can no longer work in their profes­sion or who are long-term unem­ployed. It’s never too late!

I also wanted to set an example and give hope to all those who can no longer work in their profes­sion or who are long-term unem­ployed. It’s never too late!

Dirk Buschmann

That’s awesome! And how did you manage to juggle school, theo­ret­ical and prac­tical learning, and your job at KOCH?

By reducing my working hours at KOCH, I was able to take Fridays off so I could attend voca­tional school. I worked through the exam papers while holi­daying near the Moselle river. For the week­ends, I had prac­tical home­work that I worked through in my bakery. So after a year I was able to take the theo­ret­ical exam and shortly after that the prac­tical exam at the Chamber of Crafts and Trades in Reut­lingen.

And what happened after that? Or what’s next on the agenda?

Since it is a craft, I needed a master craftsman’s certifi­cate to run a bakery. Since the master craftsman’s exam­i­na­tion is no longer granted to a person over 50 years of age, you have to apply for an exemp­tion, the socalled “small master craftsman’s certifi­cate”. This is an entry in the register of crafts and you can do every­thing except train others and call your­self a master.

What was your high­light along the way and where do you go from here?

It was a fantastic feeling, as a 60-year-old, to attend voca­tional school with young appren­tices. I was a real novelty among all those young people. But passing the final appren­tice­ship exam along with the exam for the exemp­tion permit was also a big buzz. And in July 2021, I fulfilled my longcher­ished dream and opened a small “slow baking“ bakery called “Buschi Beck“ in Alpirs­bach. In slow baking, the doughs are allowed to mature for many hours, even several days. This creates special flavors and enzymes and the pastries stay fresh longer, just like in the old tradi­tion. However, I only open on Satur­days because, in spite of my hobby, I still want to have time to enjoy my retire­ment …

That sounds very promising! We wish you continued success, good luck and good baking!