Secretary of Health and Human Services visits our Workshop!

A few years back we were working and a man came in dressed in a suit wearing sunglasses and bought a pair of house slippers. He did not strike me as the type of person that would come into our family manufactory during the middle of the day and buy a pair of The Pantoffel, but you never know. I bade him farewell and was about to turn around to go about my business when he asked if someone special could come in and see the manufactory in a few days and purchase a pair of The Pantoffel.

Very baffled by the request I asked who that somebody special was and he disclosed that the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, was in Berlin for a conference and received a tip from a close friend about our last handmade Pantoffel manufactory here in Berlin. The man identified himself from the Secret Service and asked if it was possible to inspect the entire little manufactory to make sure it was safe. We of course had nothing against it and we proceeded to go through checking every shelf, nook and cranny. Having made sure that everything was in order the man informed us that they would be arriving the next day around 2 p.m.

Closing the shop that evening we were not sure if she was really going to come to our little shop, but indeed the next day shortly before 2 p.m. two limousines pulled up in front of our workshop and four men and two women stepped out looking left and right making sure that everything was in order. It felt like a scene from a movie and seemed like the president himself was about to emerge out of that limousine. Sylvia Mathews Burwell stepped out smiling and greeted us at the front door. After shaking hands and welcoming her inside we got to talking a bit and she admired our Pantoffel and the process behind our over 100 year old family tradition. We showed her through the workshop and introduced her to our family. She thanked us and left a happy customer with her own pair of our Original Pantoffel!

A few days passed  and an American Lady came into the shop seeming very familiar. She started speaking english with her American accent and started to admire The Original Pantoffel. She introduced herself and told us that she was from the Secret Service from the Secretary's visit and was so enthused by the family manufactory that she had to get herself and her husband a pair for back home. We had a short conversation and she jokingly said: “I could not have gotten those while on the job and I'm happy I made the time to come and get myself a pair.”