Foto Butter Poschweck aufgeschnitten - Nobis Printen Aachen

The history of the Poschweck

“So we enjoy the Easter eggs while eating sweet white bread, with which, according to the old custom, the bakers used to give their customers a gift every year around Easter,” we read in the records of the archivist Meyer from 1788. This applies not only to the city of Aachen, but also to its “realm”, the neighborhoods of Würselen, Weiden, Haaren, Orsbach, Laurensberg and Vaalser Quartier, as well as the entire Aachen region.
The customers of the bakers were entitled to a sweet bread, the “Poschweck”, delivered free of charge to the East. The name is made up of the Aachen dialect word “Poschen” (Easter) and “Weck” (bread roll). Poschweck therefore simply means “Easter roll”. In 1760 the mayor’s servant Johannes Jansen noted in his diary: “Around Easter the bakers did not want to bake Easter rolls. Only the magistrate forced them to bake for their money.” Due to the general inflation, the French forbade the production of Poschwecken in 1795. The Aachen bakers took this as an opportunity to refuse their customers the usual Easter gift for the following year as well. However, this led to such riots in the Aachen area that the city council issued a harsh order on April 1, 1796, requiring and forcing an immediate resupply of the Easter rolls within ten days. It took more than half a century before the bakers once again rose up in resistance.
In 1846, the citizens of Aachen responded to the public declaration of the master bakers that in the future they would not give away sweet rolls at Easter with the half-carnival, half-serious Poschweckrevolution, during which several window panes in baker’s stores were broken. The government sided with the citizens fighting for their Poschweck – the bakers had to resume the old custom.
In 1888, the Aachen bakers’ guild managed to get Poschwecken in every baker’s store at Easter, but for good money.
Since then, even in the surrounding area, there was no more free bread at Easter time.

Here you can find our Poschweck in three sizes.