Richmond’s Nolde Brothers Bakery: Defending Tradition and Reputation Against Anti-German Sentiment During WWII

After his father’s death in 1881, John Henry Nolde left his home in Niedenstein, Germany, to live with relatives in Richmond. He was only 14 years old.  

He soon began an apprenticeship at his uncle’s business, Moesta Bakery, on East Main Street, where he earned $1.50 an hour plus room and board. After being promoted to foreman, Nolde decided to open his own bakery. His mother and siblings left Germany for Richmond to help with the new business.  

In 1892, he began baking in the basement of a house at 26th and Broad Streets. His mother and sisters sold the bread in their store for five cents a loaf.  

Their business grew rapidly, expanding and then moving to a larger, three-story building in Church Hill. By 1907, Nolde Brothers Bakery incorporated, and William, August and George Nolde became their brothers’ official partners.  

They began delivering a variety of breads and other sweet baked treats to customers’ homes. As demand increased, they went from one horse-drawn delivery wagon to a fleet of wagons. They later added delivery trucks and nationwide shipping.  

In 1939, Nolde Bros. opened a bakery in Norfolk, and in 1952 they expanded again with a plant in Petersburg. Their business model shifted from selling directly to customers to selling to grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, hospitals and schools.   

Nolde Brothers supported the community by sponsoring events including the Capitol Square Easter Egg Hunt, an amateur baseball team, bakery tours and in the 1960s, the “Sailor Bob” television show for kids.  

By the 1940s, the Nolde family bakery had grown into one of the most successful independent bakeries in the country, renowned for its breads and pastries. But as anti-German sentiment swept through the nation during World War II, the once-celebrated bakery found itself at the center of troubling rumors. Gossip began to circulate that the Nolde family, of German descent, were Nazi sympathizers. The situation spiraled further as more accusations surfaced — that their baked goods were tainted with ground glass or poison, a claim that fed the national hysteria.  

Overnight, the Noldes’ business transformed from a beloved community business into a symbol of suspicion and fear, impacting the family’s reputation and future. On June 21, 1940, the brothers took out a full-page advertisement in the Richmond Times-Dispatch to challenge the rumors and attacks on their patriotism. The Noldes believed that a competitor’s salesperson had started the rumors to hurt their business.  

“On the basis of a common desire to keep these United States of America free from the rule of any dictator, foreign or otherwise, and a fervent determination to perpetuate for our children the freedom of individual thought, liberty and opportunity through which we have been able to prosper, we appeal to our fellow citizens to preserve the unity and solidarity of our nation.

In the name of American fair-play, we believe that our record of 48 years gives us the right to protest against being stabbed in the back by infamous lies.”

William Nolde, August H. Nolde, George F. Nolde, Henry A. Nolde

The principal of the nearby Dunbar School was outraged at the rumors and sent this letter offering support to William Nolde and his brothers the day after the Noldes’ ad appeared in the paper.

“The dastardly and scurrilous attack made upon you and your noble brothers has aroused in your friends a cold fury of resentment.” 

P. S. Murrill, Principal of Dunbar School

Nolde Brothers rebounded quickly at the end of the war.

In 1951, 350 Nolde Brothers bakers, truck drivers and warehouse staff, members of the local Bakery and Confectionary Worker’s Union, walked off the job demanding a five-day week of eight hours a day or a six-day week with shorter hours. They also asked for a raise and three weeks of vacation after 10 years of employment.  

Three other local bakeries’ employees joined the strike, which created a bread shortage in the city. Richmond’s independent grocery stores ran out of bread completely, and the national and regional chain grocery stores began bringing bread in from bakeries outside of Richmond. The strike lasted 26 days.  

Economically, Richmond recovered quickly from the stress of the Great Depression and two world wars, and in 1953 their industrial production increased 225 percent from 1929. Even after the worker’s strike, Nolde Brothers rebounded as well, and by 1953, they were the largest baker in the state, reporting $6 million in sales.  

The Nolde family operated the bakery until 1974 when they sold the business to Interstate Brands of Kansas City, Missouri, for a little over a half of a million dollars. Within a few years, Interstate Brands closed the remaining bakeries in Richmond and Petersburg, claiming an inability to turn a profit.  

Sources

Ray Schreiner, “Nolde Brothers Bakery-Gone But Not Forgotten, “ Fifty Plus Richmond, September 2010. 

Nolde Brothers Incorporated Prospectus, 1953, 6-7. 

Harry Kollatz,  “Rolling in the Dough,” Richmond Magazine, March 18, 2022. 

Newspapers.com. Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 21, 1940. https://www.newspapers.com/article/richmond-times-dispatch/158669063/. 

James K. Sanford, A Century of Commerce, Richmond Chamber of Commerce, 1967.  

“Local Baker’s to Continue Negotiations,” Newspapers.com. The Richmond News Leader, June 28, 1951. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-richmond-news-leader/158842186/.