It's ironic that I saw the post on German bread. Just recently my German
friend sent me her sourdough starter so I could make a
type of sourdough rye bread.
She either keeps a starter or what she calls " kremelsauer" which is sour
crumbs or sour streusal that can keeps for weeks in the crumb state and then
reconstituted as a sourdough batter again.
Germans seem to enjoy the dark bread. She varies the recipe by adding such
things as nuts, raisins, diced ham etc and varies toppings by various
glazes, seeds etc.
I must tell you that she uses yeast in the final bread recipe. The breads
are moist, not dense but soft and light in texture and quite delicious.
I make the German sourdough rye bread ( without adding any yeast )
and it comes out moist and delicious also
Sourdough breads, I find are naturally moist and good keepers anyway.
Hope this sheds light on the German bread.