Good Ole' Currywurst

Doesn't the sound of sausage with curry ketchup just excite your taste buds? (Yuck!) If so, you may be visiting some Currywurst joints on your visit to Germany. Currywurst is one of the most popular fast food dishes in Germany- they love it!

Currywurst is a quickly-made dish of German origin consisting of steamed pork sausage cut into slices and seasoned with warm curry ketchup, regularly consisting of ketchup or tomato paste blended with generous amounts of curry powder, or a ready-made ketchup-based sauce seasoned with curry and other spices.

The invention of currywurst is attributed to Herta Heuwer in Berlin in 1949 after she obtained ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and curry powder from British soldiers. She mixed these ingredients with other spices and poured it over grilled pork sausage. Heuwer started selling the cheap but filling snack at a street stand in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin where it became popular with construction workers rebuilding the devastated city. She patented her sauce, called Chillup, in 1951. At its height the stand was selling 10,000 servings per week. She later opened a small restaurant which operated until 1974.

Interesting facts about Currywurst

• By tradition, every candidate for Bürgermeister (mayor) of Berlin is photographed at a currywurst stand.
• The 1993 novel Die Entdeckung der Currywurst ("The Discovery of the Currywurst") by Uwe Timm was made into a 2008 film of the same name.
• The Deutsches Currywurst Museum opened in Berlin on August 15, 2009, commemorating the 60th anniversary of its creation. Curator Martin Loewer said "No other national German dish inspires so much history and has so many well-known fans"
• The currywurst is also regularly featured in school books and nursery books.

Dig in!