Our History
How it all began ...
In 1908 my great-grandfather Bernhard Junemann started the family tradition of manufacturing The Pantoffel, living and working out of his family home in Magdeburg Germany. Starting out with only the Original Pantoffel Bernhard Junemann started small whilst raising his family.
My grandfather Otto Junemann later on inherited the business and decided to leave Magdeburg in 1927 and move to the lively capital of Germany, Berlin. During the early days of our Pantoffel manufactory we moved around from workshop to workshop trying to find the perfect place to call home.
As time would have it, two world wars and the economic depression struck the European continent and had our small family business fighting for its existence, sometimes having to trade our Pantoffel for food or resorting to manufacturing soles from used tires.
»When hard times came we always got through with a little bit of luck and alot of enthusiasm. I think that because we are a family business we are still here today, otherwise we would have had to close down long ago.«
Our Pantoffel manufactory was selling its house slippers on markets and through word of mouth during our time in the DDR, having to build our business in East Berlin. That never stopped my family from staying true to the family tradition.
My father Gunther Junemann the youngest of his 12 siblings inherited our family business in 1968, ensuring the 3rd generation to carry on the family tradition. During the end of the 70's, after not having found the right workshop to call home my father moved the Pantoffel manufactory to its final resting place in Berlin Mitte in 1981.
Moving the business into the 21st century it was my job to continue the family tradition as the 4th generation Pantoffel-Maker. Since I was a child it was my dream to make The Pantoffel and take over the family business and now I am the last Pantoffel-Maker in the capital city of Berlin Germany.
»I learned orthopedic shoemaking after school, because my parents always wanted me to get a education, but soon after started working here. My father hired me and intensively taught me everything there was to know about how to make slippers in one year.«
Now starting to use the vast reach of the internet we have the ability to share our story of our old traditional method of making The Pantoffel with many more people then before, ensuring our small family business to thrive for the next decades to come.