Baumkuchen in Japan

Baumkuchen is one of the most popular pastries in Japan, widely available at supermarkets, convenience stores, and even some drugstores — usually sold in small packaged portions. As its name suggests, it is a type of German spit cake with distinctive ring-shaped layers.

The cake was introduced to Japan by Karl Joseph Wilhelm Juchheim (1886–1945), a German confectioner who originally ran a pastry shop in Qingdao (now in Shandong Province, China), then a German protectorate. When World War I broke out in 1914, Juchheim, serving as a private in the Landsturm, was captured by the Japanese during the Siege of Qingdao and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Okinawa.

In 1919, he was relocated to a camp on Ninoshima Island near Hiroshima, where he baked Baumkuchen for an exhibition at the Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall (now known as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial or Atomic Bomb Dome). The cake was very well received and marked the beginning of its popularity in Japan.

After his release, while most German prisoners returned back to Germany, Juchheim chose to stay in Japan. He opened his first confectionery store in Yokohama in 1922. Unfortunately, the shop was destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake the following year, prompting him to relocate to Kobe, where he established a new store.

Juchheim passed away on August 14, 1945, just one day before Japan's surrender in World War II. Following the war, his wife Elise was deported to Germany by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers but managed to return to Japan in 1953. Together with her husband's apprentices, she rebuilt the business, which continues today as Juchheim Co. In recognition of her contributions, Elise received the Order of the Sacred Treasure (5th Class) in 1966. She passed away in Kobe in 1971.

Baumkuchen has become firmly rooted in Japanese food culture, to the point where Japan is believed to consume more Baumkuchen than Germany itself. According to a post by the German Embassy in Japan on X, most of their German staff had never tried Baumkuchen before coming to Japan.

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