George Ackerle


GEORGE ACKERLE was born December 14, 1920 in New Jersey. He was one of at least seven children born to Paul F. and Anna Ackerle. The Ackerles lived in Deptford NJ through at least April of 1930. Paul Ackerle was a baker by trade, working in Camden as early as 1918, and young George followed him into that trade. Sometime after 1930 Paul Ackerle moved to Camden NJ. By 1947 he owned his own bakery, Ackerle’s Bakery at 653 Ferry Avenue. Paul Ackerle and family were then living at 1128 Jackson Street in Camden’s Whitman Park neighborhood. George Ackerle was renting a home at 322 York Street in North Camden, and his brother Paul, then in the United States Navy, resided there as well.

George Ackerle later took over his fathers business. With the destruction of much of Ferry Avenue when the Roosevelt Manor public housing project was built, George Ackerle acquired Schneider’s Bakery at 1644 Broadway. For many years George Ackerle owned and operated Ackerle’s Bakery on Broadway in Camden’s Eight Ward, during which time he was known as “The Danish Pastry King.”

The bakery George Ackerle acquired had been founded by Joseph Schneider in the 1920s. Prior to Prohibition being enacted in 1919, Joseph Schneider operated a saloon across the street at 1939 Fillmore Street. He had come to America from the old empire of Austria-Hungary in 1901. At the time of the 1920 census Mr. Schneider lived over the saloon with wife Theresa, son Lawrence, 13, and daughters Elizabeth, 11, Marguerite, 9, and Theresa, 3. After the passage of Prohibition, Joseph Schneider sold the saloon. By 1930 the family had moved to 413 Van Hook Street. Joseph Schneider opened up a bakery at 1644 Broadway, known as Schneider’s Bakery, which his son Lawrence conducted after his death, through at least 1952. After George Ackerle acquired the bakery in the 1950s, he moved the business to 1500 Broadway, where he continued the bakery’s business through the late 1970s.

George Ackerle appears to have been a sports enthusiast, and a fan of classic and historic cars. Ackerle’s Bakery sponsored a team in the Camden County Baseball League which won the league championship in 1959 behind the pitching of former Woodrow Wilson High School star hurler Art Watson. He supported the Camden-based Veterans Boxing Association Ring No. 6, and in 1971 he owned a 1931 16 cylinder Cadillac.

George Ackerle spent his later years living in Mount Ephraim NJ. He died July 12, 1997.


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  • George Ackerle

    GEORGE ACKERLE was born December 14, 1920 in New Jersey. He was one of at least seven children born to Paul F. and Anna Ackerle. The Ackerles lived in Deptford NJ through at least April of 1930. Paul Ackerle was a baker by trade, working in Camden as early as 1918, and young George followed…

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