Here at kadó, we often get asked: Do those liquorice sticks from East Germany still exist? Hard and chewy they were, rough and tangy. Approx. 10cm in length, wrapped in paper, black and delicious! Hm – a case for kadó!
We researched the federal archives and found first clues about the confectionary combinations in the GDR:
In 1898, Oswald Stengel founded a Gingerbread- and Chocolate Factory in Wilkau-Haßlau, Saxonia. With the emergence of the GDR, his son “sold” the factory to the county of Saxonia and the factory was restructured and declared the “Publicly Owned Factory for Confectionary Wesa”.
On the 16.11.1973, the new director asked for permission to conduct “complex restructure of the liquorice and gelatine production, including the improvement of working and living conditions” to the council of Karl-Marx-Stadt. The ministry of Industry and Food Production in Berlin approved of this and this special liquorice stick was the first item to be produced in this newly restructured factory. However, it was only meant as a temporary product, to practice for the production of proper liquorice confectionary. So only a single generation of people in the GDR were able to enjoy these special liquorice sticks. In 1974, production ended and the recipe has been lost ever since. We are sorry!
