German bakery owners dedicate heartfelt love to deaf-mutes in central China city

A bakery in the central Chinese city of Changsha has bidden farewell to its Germen owners, who have dedicated two decades to helping local deaf-mute people, and they pass on love and care for the hearing impaired people by entrusting a new manager.

The shop, "Bach's Bakery", is owned by Uwe Brutzer, a German national, and his wife Dorothee Brutzer, who are known by their Chinese names of Wu Zhengrong and Du Xuehui. They have run the bakery for two decades, employing and training deaf-mutes as bakers and their career options.

In 2002, the couple arrived in Changsha to work for a deaf-mute children's assistance project funded by a German civil charity organization. Realizing the group's plight in the job market, they opened the bakery in 2011 in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province.

"For nine years before we opened the bakery, we had been devoted to rehabilitation training to help families and children who were struggling and fund their rehabilitation. But gradually with the social development, rehabilitation training has been guaranteed for people with difficulties as they had been offered social assistance, therefore the overseas funding projects were no longer needed. Meanwhile, we realized that hearing-impaired people changed jobs often and were faced with employment instability. So we opened the bakery to provide skills training for those people," said Brutzer.

The establishment now has seven deaf-mute employees, over half of them deaf-mute. The bakery also offers free training for the hearing-impaired and helps them to be more competitive in the job market.

During the two decade they lived in Changsha, Brutzer and his wife have helped hundreds of people with disabilities. However, as they have been away from home for too long a time, bouts of homesickness made them finally decide to return to Germany and reunite with their family.

As the news of the couple leaving spread, many customers, their friends and those who have received their help have come to say goodbye.

"We don't know the owner personally, but we feel sad that he is leaving," said a customer in the bakery.

As he will soon leave for his hometown, Brutzer found a new manager for the bakery in hope that the establishment can keep providing employment and training opportunities for people with hearing impairments.

The new manager, Markus Hofmüller, or known by his Chinese names of He Mokai, is also a German national who shares the same business philosophy and ideal with Brutzer.

"He made it very clear to me from the very beginning that he hoped that the people taking over the bakery must continue to recruit deaf-mute people and provide them with training and employment opportunities. And for me I knew from the beginning that this is something that cannot be compromised. And he was relieved after I told him what I thought," said Hofmüller.

"I believe we have the same aspiration, which is to provide development opportunities for people and just make sure that the hearing-impaired can work here and bake delicious bread," said Brutzer.

Hofmüller was an English teacher. Last year, he saw on the Internet by chance that the silent bakery in Changsha was looking for a new manager. As he just finished a teaching job in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, he emailed Brutzer to apply for the position.

Brutzer and Hofmüller shared the same vision of the bakery to provide job opportunities for the hearing-impaired and hit it off straight away.

The new manager of the bakery thus moved to Changsha with his wife and two daughters two months ago and threw himself into a new journey, making dough and learning sign language to gear himself up for taking over the job of Brutzer.

In the past two months, Brutzer has been busy teaching the new manager to bake, with a view to retaining the original flavor and high quality of the bakery's products after he leaves.

Liu, the cook working for the bakery for 11 years who has made the German couple fall in love with the Hunan cuisine, said that they were just like a family.

"Say I made 300 meals a year in the bakery, I have at least made 3,000 meals for them in the past ten years. I like working here. Now our boss is leaving and a new boss is coming. I asked the new boss what would happen to the workers in the bakery, and he said he would keep us all and carry forward Brutzer's ideal in the future," said Liu.

Recently, many customers have come to the bakery and brought gifts to the German couple to thank them for their persistence and devotion to help the deaf-mute people in China in the past two decades.

Brutzer said that he did not expect to receive so many surprising and touching moments during his last days in China, and that although they had to leave, the memory of the happy time they spent in China will always be engraved in his and his wife's hearts.