Brotchen from Heaven

It lacks the elegance of the croissant, the sophistication of the English muffin, the intrigue of the bagel. But for millions of West Germans, the day begins with Brötchen, the hand-grenade-shaped breakfast roll with a shell so tough that it travels well in trouser pockets and can bear giant charges of Schmalz or butter and jam without buckling. Trouble is, the best Brötchen is freshly baked Brötchen, and that is denied West Germans through a quirk of law dating back to Hitler. To end night shifts for bakers, the Nazis in 1936 forbade any commercial baking from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m.—and the law still stands in West Germany. So, until midmorning, everybody's Brötchen is delivered to the doorstep a full day old.

Not so in the workers' paradise across the Elbe in East Germany, where the old law has been abolished and the bakers' ovens glow all the long night. To remedy the West's plight, and despite East and West Germans' conflicts over Berlin, Hannoverian Businessman Hans-Joachim Ermeler, 45, reached across the Iron Curtain and asked East Berlin's Trade Commission if it would be interested in shipping 60,000 fresh Brötchen over the border each morning. The East Germans were indeed: the deal will net the Communist regime some $250,000 a year in hard-currency marks. They have guaranteed piping-hot delivery in specially built thermos trucks and announced that the first batch of fresh Brötchen, due in September, will arrive from heaven via helicopter to celebrate this minor leavening in East-West relations.