Where can you buy real wholemeal bread in Amsterdam? Hartog’s on the Wibautstraat has been baking it for 130 years

Looking for real wholemeal bread in Amsterdam? Then you will soon end up at Hartog’s Volkorenbrood, at Wibautstraat 77 in Amsterdam-Oost. The bakery has been around since 1896, mills Dutch wheat in its own mill and bakes its best-known loaf from just four ingredients: wholemeal flour, water, salt and yeast. No bread improvers and no preservatives.

How did Hartog’s Volkorenbrood begin?

The story starts at the end of the nineteenth century in Aartswoud, a village in West Friesland. Founder Aagje Dekker baked farmhouse bread there, and visitors from Amsterdam liked it so much that the Hartog family was persuaded to sell it in the city. In 1896 Bakkerij Hartog started in a third-floor back flat in the Jordaan, baking twelve loaves at a time. Gerrit, who worked in the harbour, sold the bread door to door after work.

Aagje was well ahead of her time. She was a vegan, and that is exactly why she baked bread without additives. Lard, very common in bread back then, never went into hers. She also found the factory-made flour not good enough, so she bought her own mill and ground the grain herself.

Where has Hartog’s been over the years?

In 1901 the bakery moved to Ruyschstraat 68 in Oost: the shop at the front, the family home behind it, and the mill and bakery in the extension. The horse used for the bread round was kept in the courtyard. In 1984 Hartog’s moved to Ruyschstraat 56, on the corner of the Wibautstraat, into a new building from the urban renewal of that time.

Since 2016 the shop has been at Wibautstraat 77, and in 2019 the bakery and the mill followed. Through the wide windows on the street you can watch from outside as the wheat is milled and the bread comes out of the oven.

What makes Hartog’s bread different?

The wheat goes through the mill in one go, between two millstones of around 250 kilos each. Nothing is sifted out of the flour, so the bran and the wheat germ stay in. They use no preservatives: the bread keeps longer because the bakers add more water than usual.

You can recognise a Hartog’s loaf by its compact shape, the smell of bran, a slightly sweet taste and a crisp crust. The name HARTOG is baked into the bread, as proof that it is the real thing.

You will not find white bread here. Cornelis, owner from 1927 to 1958, put it like this: “White bread doesn’t come in here, I don’t sell castrated bread.”

Who runs Hartog’s now?

Corné Deegenaars became co-owner in 2022 and has been the owner since 2025. He works in the office together with his wife Emmy, and there are six bakers and more than twenty shop staff. They still work with Aagje’s recipes and methods.

What should you try at Hartog’s?

Corné does not need long to think about it: the bread where it all began, the “ordinary” Hartog’s wholemeal loaf. The shop also sells raisin bread, sunflower seed bread, eeuwbollen (a dark, slightly sweet loaf) and almond-filled gevulde koeken, among other things.

Living around the Wibautstraat

Hartog’s is in the Oosterparkbuurt, within walking distance of the Oosterpark. Wibautstraat metro station, on lines 51, 53 and 54, is on the same street, so you are quickly in the city centre or at the Zuidas. Our colleague Lisa also mentions Hartog’s in her tips on our page about Amsterdam-Oost.

Looking for a home in Oost yourself? Then see what our buying agent in Amsterdam can do for you. More Amsterdam businesses with a long history: the Lanskroon pastry shop on the Singel and De Logie, the oldest wine shop in the city.

Photos: Hartog’s Volkorenbrood