DANK Chicago South hosts Pretzel Class

On May 7 & 8th 2021 we were honored to have Chicago’s Pretzel king -Reinhard Richter host our sold out “Mai Bretzel backen Klasse” which was quite entertaining.

On Friday, as we were waiting for the Pretzels to bake in the oven there was Sang und Klang where Reinhard started to sing songs and everyone chimed in. On Saturday along with a Stein of BBK German Bier, the Pretzel class had a sing along while Pretzel chef Reinhard played his accordion.

The 1st pretzels were baked as soft squishy bread and some say they were originally called “Bracelle” the Latin term for little arms from which Germans derived the word Bretzel. Now some of the pretzels baked at the German American Heritage center that weekend were yet soft & squishy but also fat, skinny, long, short and muffin like. Oh the laughter that took place along with the fabulous aroma. We can’t forget to mention the homemade raspberry jam that Reinhard brought to sample with the warm buttered freshly baked pretzels- leckar!!

Pretzel legend has that in 1610 in Switzerland royal couples used a pretzel in their wedding ceremonies (similar to a wishbone used today) to seal the bond of Matrimony and that this custom may have been the origin of the phrase “tying the knot”. We even had a 2 couples that participated in the class that “tied the knot” where their wedding reception was held at the DANK South Haus and the other one was for their 25th wedding anniversary celebration (congrats Dottie & Tom and Janel & Chris) . It was wonderful to hear all the German history stories that were discussed in those short hours. Danke shön everyone for coming to our Bretzel Bäckerei hope to see all of you soon at the Klubhaus as DANK South begins our event schedule.