It was first introduced to Japan by the German Karl Joseph Wilhelm Juchheim . Juchheim was in the Chinese city of Tsingtao during World War I when Britain and Japan laid siege to Tsingtao . He and his wife were then interned at Okinawa . Juchheim started making and selling the traditional confection at a German exhibition in Hiroshima in 1919 . After the war , he chose to remain in Japan . Continued success allowed him to move to Yokohama and open a bakery , but its destruction in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake caused him to move his operations to Kobe , where he stayed until his death just before the end of World War II . Some years later , his wife returned to help a Japanese company open a chain of bakeries under the Juchheim name that further helped spread baumkuchen 's popularity in Japan
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
Baumkuchen