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One of the easiest German rations to reproduce is the German Dauerbrot 'B' ration.  Basically it is preserved bread that is "gift" wrapped with paper that has a label printed directly on it.

STEP 1
Purchase your materials.  You will need to buy some cotton twine to use for binding.  Some sort of thick newsprint paper that is larger in size than the standard  8½ x 11paper.  This paper can usually be found in tablets at any arts & crafts store or office supply.  Then you will need the all important bread.

We have found PEMA Brand Pumpernickel bread to be the best for this (picture of the bread can be seen at the following link).  It has the ideal size, look, & portion for use.  Usually you can find this bread at most German food stores, import foods shops, or online at Germandeli.com: click here.

STEP 2
Printing the label will take some time to get right.  Basically, since there is so many different types of programs and printers out there, we will not go into detail on how to size and position the image for printing.  This will take some trial and error to find the best position for your printer, but you should be able to figure it out in about two or three trials.  Ok, so you want to save the following image:
 

Now, you will want to use the program your most comfortable with (I use MS Word for it is easy to position and resize images to paper widths).  You want to get the above label positioned on your newsprint paper so that when its wrapped around the PEMA bread, it lines up like the original pictured above.

STEP 3
Remove the modern wrapping and label from the PEMA bread.  Place the bread on the paper that you have just printed the label on.  Wrap it as if your wrapping a gift (seam is on the bottom and the label is on the top).  Note that when folding the sides on the long ends, the bottom end fold is boxed & the top is triangular (see below).

Next you will take two pieces of good cotton twine and bind the package as seen in the top picture.  You will note that no glue is needed and that the twine is not a continuous strand.  You can tell this on the original for the intersection of the string does not twist in any way.  Tie off the twine using small knots (no bows) and your done.  Its not the most tasty ration but there is worse.  Just be sure to get some sugar beet syrup or the such to put on it to make it a little better.

Sources:
- Images & information provided by: Doug Nash, Don Peterson, & Mr. Hidenori Tanamura.

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