Sumeja Zumberi, the 18-year-old owner of the new women's café, is still in high school and currently preparing for her driving test. – Photo: Alicia Windzio/dpa
There is a happy sound of loud chatter coming from the women-only ice cream parlour in Bremen. It's busy and bustling, even though it has only just opened.
Beyond ice cream you can get drinks, cakes, waffles and other tasty snacks.
What Café Baresha lacks is men, as it's solely for women and children.
"I think that women definitely feel more comfortable here than in mixed cafés," says owner Sumeja Zumberi. "They see it as a place of retreat." Other local cafés are overrun by men, she says.
Places reserved for women are rare in Germany and in Bremen, the nation's smallest federal state, there are no similar establishments.
The café is a special institution, says managing director Nathalie Rübsteck. Many women and men in Bremen's Gröpelingen district, having come to Germany from countries where separation between sexes is more pronounced, already socialize in separate spaces, she says.
"That's why I think it's very good that women have a space of their own there to exchange ideas," she says.
Women-only is the new norm at a café in Bremen, northern Germany, where men are not allowed, but children are welcome. What makes this café even more unique is that its owner is still in high school. – Photo: Alicia Windzio/dpa
Teen owner of café still in high school
Zumberi, the 18-year-old owner of the new women's café, is still in high school and currently preparing for her driving test.
She is the sole legal owner of the Baresha women's ice cream parlour, though she admits she couldn't run the business without her family.
"It's possible because I get a lot of support from my parents, especially my father," she says. An experienced business owner, he handles the finances and insurance while her mother helps out in the café.
"I'm not alone," says Zumberi, who is satisfied with progress so far, just weeks since she opened her establishment. "I'm definitely looking forward to the days and years ahead with the business."
Zumberi's father had dreamed of opening up a café like the Baresha women's ice cream parlour.
He had long toyed with the idea of opening his own ice cream parlour and, after working many jobs in his 30 years in Germany, he started making plans with his family, says Zumberi.
At some point in their discussions, all realized that they needed something different as the area has a slew of regular ice cream parlours.
After mulling what was missing in Bremen, they came up with the idea of a women's ice cream parlour.
"Where I come from, it's actually quite normal for there to be women's ice cream parlours," says Zumberi, who was born in Germany like her siblings.
"We come from the Balkans, we are Albanians from Kosovo," she explains.
She says the name Baresha is to remind her of her roots, because here in Germany, she sometimes forgets where she comes from.
An Albanian word, Baresha refers to a shepherdess – a woman who takes on responsibility in several areas.
The Baresha ice cream parlour is one of few places reserved for women in Germany and the only one of its kind in Bremen. Photo: Alicia Windzio/dpa
Women's spaces not new to Germany
Germany has no statistics about how many bars and restaurants cater exclusively to women nationwide but a spokeswoman for the German Hotel and Restaurant Association says the idea is not new.
She cites a women-only guesthouse, a house with holiday apartments, a hotel with a breakfast room or a shisha bar, all for women.
Many charities also run women's cafés, though these are typically events for women, such as female refugees, rather than permanent dining establishments.
Zumberi's café has gone down a treat in Bremen and the women currently enjoying the café praise its offerings.
Spaces just for women are important as there are a lot of male-dominated spaces in the Gröpelingen area, says a customer who is visiting the café for the first time. "It's a very, very good concept."
Her friend agrees, welcoming a space where women can meet and chat with others from the neighbourhood. She is also happy that children are invited here too.
The café fills a gap in the community, she says, adding that it would be a bit cheeky for men to feel discriminated against by the women's café as they dominate so many public spaces.
A third customer says she often comes to the café with her friends or sisters. "I think it's nice that it's just for women," she says. "I feel better, more comfortable, undisturbed here." She adds that women also need some distance from men.
Zumberi is thrilled by the feedback, but she also has other plans for her future.
Her next dream is to become a teacher – meaning she would run the ice cream parlour on the side. Watch this space. – By Alicia Windzio and Helen Hoffmann/dpa
