Supplies @museum.de

M: Although the records remain silent on the subject, you can easily imagine it: there must have been a persistent aroma of freshly baked bread in the streets of Ludwigsburg.

F: After all, the garrison demolished up to four metric tons of bread a day! To be able to produce that enormous quantity, there were specialist military bakers. They practised their craft at the Proviantamt – the commissariat – which was fittingly nicknamed the “bakery barracks”.

M: In the display case, you can see a small-scale field bakery oven being drawn by a team of horses. It’s actually a toy that was made some time between 1910 and 1914. Ovens like these were used in the event of mobilisation. Each army corps had two bakery columns. Each of the columns was equipped with twelve mobile field ovens. The flue was folded down for transport.

F: In terms of organisation, the bakers came under the commissariat. But militarily, they were part of the train battalion. Hence the number 13 embroidered on the epaulettes.

M: The bakers had their hands full. Every four days, each soldier was issued with three kilogrammes of bread – equivalent to six pounds nine ounces. In Württemberg, the commissary bread was made from one third rye and two thirds wheat flour. That made for much tastier and more digestible rations than the bread issued to the Prussian military. Their bread was made from 100 per cent rye flour.