About Bäcker Zeitung

Bäcker Zeitung

The Bäcker Zeitung — "Die Regionalzeitung für Bäcker und Konditoren" (the regional newspaper for bakers and confectioners) — is the German-language trade journal for small and medium-sized craft bakeries, published monthly from Osnabrück by the INGER Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. Founded in 1909, it is one of the baking industry's oldest publications: its target group the craft bakers (Handwerksbäcker) in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. IVW-audited with around 3,000 copies per issue, the journal has accompanied the craft through more than a century: the wood-fired ovens, the industrialization, the discount competition, and the craft renaissance.

Overview

The journal serves the craft bakeries: the small and medium-sized Handwerksbetriebe — the family bakeries, the neighborhood bakers, the regional filials. The editorial program covers the craft's agenda: the baking technology, the raw materials, the business management, the law, the personnel, and the branch politics. The monthly rhythm — the printed issue — structures the craft's information month: the recipes, the techniques, the market news, the association reports.

The regional character — "Die Regionalzeitung" — distinguishes the journal from the national industry titles: the state associations' news, the regional markets, the local craft stories. The DACH distribution — Germany, Austria, Switzerland — reaches the German-speaking craft: the bakers and confectioners. The IVW membership — the audited circulation — gives the advertisers the certified reach: the suppliers, the millers, the oven builders, the ingredient manufacturers.

History

The 1909 founding — in the German Empire's late years — placed the Bäcker Zeitung in the craft's press landscape: the bakers' own newspaper, in the era of the wood-fired ovens and the hand craft. Through the Weimar Republic, the Nazi era, the war, and the division — the journal accompanied the craft: the 1950s reconstruction's bakery boom, the 1960s industrialization, the 1970s supermarket competition. The DDR's "Bäcker und Konditor" (1963–) — the East's monthly, published by the VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig — ran parallel: after reunification sold via TÜV Verlag to the Gildeverlag (1993), then to the BackMedia Verlagsgesellschaft (2001, today INGER) — now published as the sub-edition of the Bäcker Zeitung with the old logo: the East's title living on within the West's.

The INGER Verlagsgesellschaft mbH — Luisenstraße 34, 49074 Osnabrück — publishes the journal: the editor-in-chief and managing director Trond Patzphal. The publisher's portfolio — the Bäckerwelt family's titles: Bäcker Zeitung, Back Journal, BäckerGastro, Backtechnik europe, Artisan, DBZ Magazin, Coffee Business, Cereal Technology — makes the Osnabrück house the baking industry's media company. The Bäckerwelt portal — the digital home — deserves its detailed telling. The baeckerwelt.de — the baking industry's news hub — carries the VDB association's forums (the 28th VDB Forum Ost on the raw-material qualities), the event calendar (the Südback October 2026 in Stuttgart, the VDB multifunctional fruit-fiber ingredients, the company visits, the Großbäcker branch day, the Bahlsen plant tour), the subscription and shop, and the full title portfolio: the Aroma (the roasting magazine), the Artisan (the slow-baking craft), the Back Journal (the chain stores and premium bakers), the Back Journal direkt (the young sales professionals and their trainers), the Backtechnik europe and international, the BäckerGastro, the Bäcker Zeitung, the Cereal Technology, the Coffee Business, the DBZ Magazin (the bakers and confectioners' business magazine), the Filialmanagement (the leading and selling), and the Recht (the European food-law journal). The portal's "What's next" — the upcoming dates — and the archive — abonet.baeckerwelt.de — serve the industry's planning and research: the events, the annual tables of contents.

Coverage and Content

The editorial program follows the craft's year. The technology coverage treats the baking: the ovens, the dough processing, the fermentation, the recipes. The raw-material coverage — the flour, the grains, the ingredients — addresses the craft's foundation: the millers, the suppliers, the qualities. The business coverage — the management, the personnel, the succession — serves the family enterprises: the bakery as the business. The law coverage — the food law, the labor law — gives the regulatory guidance. The branch-politics coverage — the associations, the guilds — carries the craft's voice.

The guild system — the craft's organization — deserves its telling. The German bakery craft organizes in the guilds (Innungen), the state associations (Landesverbände), and the Zentralverband des Deutschen Bäckerhandwerks: the compulsory-chamber system's craft representation. The journal's "Regionalzeitung" character — the state associations' news, the guild reports — carries the organized craft's voice: the master examinations, the training, the competitions (the bakers' youth championships), the political lobbying. The DDR legacy — the "Bäcker und Konditor" sub-edition with the old logo — preserves the East's craft memory: the 1963-founded monthly that survived the reunification as the Bäcker Zeitung's supplement — and inspired the Slow Baking association and the Artisan magazine: the deep understanding of baking's fundamentals as the craft's renaissance program. The craft's structural crisis — the journal's century-long context — deserves its telling. The German bakery craft — once 50,000+ bakeries — has consolidated to a fraction: the discounters' bake-off stations, the supermarket chains' in-store bakeries, the industrial bread — squeezing the craft's margins. The survivors' strategies — the premium positioning, the regional identity, the snack and café business, the slow-baking craft — fill the journal's pages: the Handwerk fighting back with the quality the industry cannot copy. The raw-material challenge — the VDB Forum Ost's 2026 focus on the increasingly difficult raw-material qualities — shows the craft's technical front: the flour qualities, the dough handling, the recipe adaptation. The personnel crisis — the baker profession's recruitment struggle, the night-work image — is the existential threat: the journal's training and succession coverage addressing the craft's future. The fairs — the Südback in Stuttgart (October 2026), the Internorga in Hamburg — are the industry's gatherings: the ovens, the ingredients, the concepts — with the special issues reporting back. The sub-edition — the "Bäcker und Konditor" with the old DDR logo — preserves the East's tradition: the title that inspired the Slow Baking association and the Artisan magazine.

Organization and Ownership

The Bäcker Zeitung is published by the INGER Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Luisenstraße 34, 49074 Osnabrück (Postfach 1220, 49002 Osnabrück), telephone +49 (0)541 58 05 44-30. The editor-in-chief and managing director is Trond Patzphal. The INGER publishing house — the Osnabrück baking-media company — deserves its institutional telling. The Verlagsgesellschaft — Luisenstraße 34, 49074 Osnabrück, the +49 (0)541 58 05 44 central — publishes the baking industry's full spectrum: the Bäcker Zeitung (the craft's regional newspaper, 1909), the Back Journal (the chain stores and premium bakers, 1973), the BäckerGastro (the gastronomy concepts, 2013), the Backtechnik europe (the industry and large-scale craft, 2001), the Artisan (the slow-baking craft magazine), the DBZ Magazin (the bakers and confectioners' business magazine), the Coffee Business (the coffee industry), the Cereal Technology (the grain, flour, bread, pasta, cereals and technology), the Filialmanagement, and the Recht (the European food-law journal). The management — Monika Kordhanke and Henning Tau (managing directors), Trond Patzphal (publisher) — and the editorial teams — Dirk Waclawek (Back Journal editor-in-chief) — carry the portfolio: the baking industry's media house, print and digital, German and English.

The business model follows the B2B trade-press pattern: the subscriptions (3,000 IVW-audited copies), the advertising (the suppliers, the millers, the oven builders), and the archive services. Detailed revenue figures are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The brand's digital home is baeckerwelt.de — the Bäckerwelt portal: the baking industry's news (the VDB forums, the raw-material qualities), the event calendar (the Südback, the VDB events, the branch days), the subscription and shop, and the title portfolio (Aroma, Artisan, Back Journal, BäckerGastro, Bäcker Zeitung, Backtechnik, Cereal Technology, Coffee Business, DBZ Magazin, Filialmanagement, Recht). The archive — abonet.baeckerwelt.de — carries the annual tables of contents. The digital strategy follows the B2B logic: the print monthly for the deep craft coverage, the portal for the daily industry news and the events.

As the craft bakeries' regional newspaper — founded 1909, IVW-audited, published by the INGER Verlagsgesellschaft — the Bäcker Zeitung remains the Handwerk's companion: the technology, the raw materials, and the business — monthly in print, daily on baeckerwelt.de.