Currywurst

Currywurst. Alex Fox / Pixabay.com / 2020 / CC0 1.0

Currywurst is a German fast-food dish consisting of sausage with curried sauce on it, sold from lunch stands called “Imbissstände“. ^[1]Imbissstand, singular. Imbissstände, plural. Imbissbude in Austria; Würstelstand in Switzerland. It is particularly popular in Berlin.

It is an inexpensive food, costing only about €2.50 ($3.00 US, 2021 conversion) that is strictly a street food, as opposed to a restaurant food. It is typically served in a small, rectangular paper tray with raised edges.

It is eaten by all classes of people, from construction workers to corporate executives. “Currywurst is a culinary unifier enjoyed both in factory worker cafeterias and corner offices.” ^[2]Nicola, Stefan. VW’s Sausage Squabble Epitomizes Germany’s Resistance to Change. New York, NY: Bloomberg. 12 August 2021. Accessed August 2021 at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-08-12/vw-s-sausage-squabble-epitomizes-germany-s-resistance-to-change

See also: Currywurst Recipe

Sausages used in currywurst

The exact type of sausage used, and the sauce used, can vary by vendor and city preferences.

The sausages used will be about 20 cm (8 inches) long before being cut up for serving, and about as thick as North American wieners. The actual type of sausage can be Brühwurst, Bratwurst, Bockwurst or Dampfwurst.

Bockwurst is the preferred sausage in some areas in the Ruhr, though in other areas of the Ruhr Bratwurst reigns supreme. Bratwurst, though, is never used in Berlin.

Dampfwurst sausage versions are not considered as good (because the sausage is considered to be a cheaper quality one.)

Beef sausages are used at halal food stands:

“Halal food stands serve the dish with beef sausage in place of pork.” ^[3] Johnstone, Lindsey. Currywurst at 70: The surprising British link to Germany’s street snack. Lyons, France: EuroNews. 9 April 2019. Accessed August 2021 at https://www.euronews.com/2019/09/04/currywurst-at-70-the-surprising-british-link-to-germany-s-street-snack

You can also get vegan sausage versions now.

You can ask for your currywurst with a sausage with skin (“darm“) on it (“Currywurst mit Darm“) or without skin (“Currywurst ohne Darm” or “darmlos.”) Sausages with skin will be Brühwürste, containing pork and beef; they look like Bockwurst, and are lightly cured and smoked.

Skinless sausage tends to be made of pork, pale in colour, and not cured or smoked. In East Berlin, there’s a preference for skinless sausages; in West Berlin, they prefer their currywurst sausages with skin on.

The sausages can be cooked by boiling or grilling; skinless sausages are generally boiled (i.e. simmered); skin-on ones generally fried or grilled. Cuts are made in the sausage before frying or grilling so that it will puff and not explode.

Though occasionally the sausage may be served whole, typically it is cut into pieces. Some people debate whether the pieces should be cut on an angle like French-cut beans, or cut straight into squarish chunks. ^[4]Uwe Timm: “Currywurst gehört auf die Straße”. Munich, Germany: Autohaus. 16 August 2021. Accessed August 2021 at https://www.autohaus.de/nachrichten/autohersteller/uwe-timm-currywurst-gehoert-auf-die-strasse-2924479

Fried ones tend to be sliced into pieces by hand with a knife. Boiled, skinless ones can be cut up that way, too, but most vendors have a special cutting box made of metal called a “Currywurstschneider” (“schneider” means “cutter.”) You drop the sausage into the box at the top, and pull down a handle at the side. The handle in turn pulls the blades inside, and cuts the sausage into pieces which fall out the bottom onto the waiting paper tray. You can also buy electrical sausage cutters, which were invented in 1963.

Currywurst stand, corner of Schloßstraße and Kieler Straße, Berlin. Muns / wikimedia / 2012/ CC BY-SA 3.0

The curry sauce and flavouring

The sausage pieces are placed (or plopped from the machine) into their paper tray for serving, then covered with a warmed tomato-based sauce (“Currysoße“) that is about the thickness of ketchup. Many say that a good currywurst is more about the sauce than the sausage. The sauce may be squirted on from plastic bottles, or ladled on from pots. The sauce is often just bought commercially — a common brand is “Hela.”

Now, comes the curry flavouring. It can be present in several ways, depending on the currywurst vendor:

• The sauce may already be flavoured with curry, either because it was bought that way or doctored up by the vendor; OR
• the sauce is plain, with the curry-flavouring being in the actual sausage; OR
• the sauce is plain, with the vendor sprinkling curry powder on for you, either on top the sauce, or on top of the sausage pieces before the sauce is applied; OR
• the sauce is plain, with the vendor providing a canister sprinkler of curry powder on the counter to let you do it yourself.

The already-flavoured sauces may include spices such as mild curry powder, cardamom, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, cumin, ginger and sweet paprika.

For those who want to make currywurst at home, Knorr makes a packaged currywurst sauce mix that you add water to, and heat.

Knorr Currywurst Sauce Mix. © Denzil Green

If you ask the currywurst vendor for yours to be “sharp” (“scharf“), you’ll get a sprinkle of cayenne pepper on it. If you ask for it “with seeds” (“mit Körnern“) — you’ll get it with red chile and its seeds sprinkled on. You can usually also ask for a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, or a sprinkle of chopped onion.

Currywurst sides

The assembled currywurst is handed to you in its tray, with a small wooden or plastic fork, and a piece of white bread or a bread roll.

Currywurst with curry powder sprinkled on, and bread roll. Alex Fox / Pixabay.com / 2019 / CC0 1.0

You can also often get French fries and mayonnaise on the side.

Currywurst with fries and mayonnaise. Alex Fox / Pixabay.com / 2020 / CC0 1.0

In some parts of Germany, the currywurst may come sprinkled with paprika, or chopped onion.

Currywurst competitors

At the end of the 1900s, currywurst started to face stiff competition from other fast street foods such as pizza and döner kebabs.

But the Turks running the döner kebab stands acknowledge the popularity of currywurst among their customers: they will sell it, even though they themselves won’t eat it because it is pork.

Currywurst in restaurants

In Düsseldorf a restaurant called “Curry” has opened to sell currywurst:

“A very original variation of the classic currywurst comes from Jürgen Mauermann and Robert Hülsmann. In 1999, the two created the Berlin home-style cooking as a designer version with 18 kt gold leaf and a selection of eleven sauces. You can order the VIP sausage… from the Düsseldorf Curry Harbor.” ^[5]Internationaler Tag der Currywurst. Herzberg, Germany: Cityblick24. Accessed August 2021 at https://www.cityblick24.de/index.php/genuss/einfach-geniessen/6823-internationaler-tag-der-currywurst (The restaurant was still extant as of 2021).

Konnopke’s Imbiss

Currywurst was also sold in East Berlin even before the Berlin Wall came down.

Max Konnopke (1901–1986) started selling sausage in East Berlin in 1930, under a subway overpass at the intersection of three major roads in the Prenzlauer Berg district. He called his sausage stand, “Konnopke’s Imbiss.” The stand claims to have been the first to offer currywurst in East Berlin, starting in 1960. ^[6]Schuetze, Christopher F.. Beloved Berlin Currywurst Stand Delivers a Bite of History. New York, NY: New York Times. 29 November 2019. Accessed August 2021 at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/29/world/europe/currywurst-konnopkes-berlin.html

Konnopke’s Imbiss, Berlin. Bjoern Schwarz / flickr / 2011 / CC BY 2.0

Max retired in 1976. His daughter Waltraud and her husband Kurt Ziervogel took over. They had two children, Dagmar Konnopke (who after a divorce took her mother’s maiden name), and Mario Ziervogel. Dagmar works for the family business at Prenzlauer Berg (as of 2021.)

Konnopke’s sold their currywurst in a bread roll with a cup of broth. When the Berlin wall fell in 1989, Konnopke’s had to adopt to the demands of the West Berlin customers now flooding over with different expectations about their currywurst. They began cutting up the currywurst to serve on small paper plates, accompanied by French fries.

Currywurst with fries and mayonnaise from Konnopke’s Imbiss. Janko Hoener / flickr / 2016 / CC BY-SA 4.0

In 2012, after working at the Prenzlauer Berg stand for 23 years, Mario left to start his own place he called “Ziervogel’s Kult-Curry” at 20, Schönhauser Alley in Berlin. He wanted to use the slogan, “Currywurst since 1960”, alluding to the family business. His mother, Waltraud, took him to court to stop him from using it. German newspapers had a field day covering the court battle. Waltraud won the battle in the end. Mario is still, however, using the family recipe for currywurst sauce. ^[7]APPÉTIT – Le boom de la saucisse au curry déchire une famille allemande. Paris, France: Le Monde. 18 July 2012. Accessed July 2012 at http://bigbrowser.blog.lemonde.fr/2012/07/18/appetit-le-boom-de-la-saucisse-au-curry-dechire-une-famille-allemande/#xtor=RSS-32280322

Volkswagen currywurst

Volkswagen has been famous for serving currywurst in its factory canteens. Diners just ladle what they want from chafing dishes onto their plates.

The company makes its own sausage for use in currywurst in Wolfsburg in northern Germany. The sausage, called “Currybockwurst“, even has a Volkswagen part number, “199 398 500 A”.

“Volkswagen’s worldwide headquarters at Wolfsburg in northern Germany, the largest manufacturing plant in the world, even has its own currywurst production line – the spicy snack is item number 199 398 500 A on the official parts list and has been made at the factory for 45 years. Volkswagen makes seven million currywurst a year, and German dealers often give packs of the snack to customers as gifts.” ^[8]Johnstone, Lindsey. Currywurst at 70: The surprising British link to Germany’s street snack. Lyons, France: EuroNews. 9 April 2019. Accessed August 2021 at https://www.euronews.com/2019/09/04/currywurst-at-70-the-surprising-british-link-to-germany-s-street-snack .

You can enjoy your currywurst in the cafeteria, or get it to go:

“The curry sausages can not only be eaten in the canteen, but are also shrink-wrapped to take away.” ^[9]”Die Currywürste können nicht nur in der Kantine gegessen werden, sondern gibt es auch eingeschweißt zum Mitnehmen. Auf Folie ist die Aufschrift “Volkswagen Originalteil”.” — Neue Ketchup-Rezeptur verärgert VW-Mitarbeiter. Hannover, Germany: Neue Presse. 10 August 2018. Accessed August 2021 at https://www.neuepresse.de/Nachrichten/Panorama/VW-aendert-die-Rezeptur-vom-Ketchup

The Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg is so large that it has several cafeterias. In August 2021, Volkswagen announced that the cafeteria in the administrative building — one of six cafeterias at Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg facilities — would no longer offer currywurst, or any meat products for that matter, becoming fully vegetarian for the health of the employees who ate at the cafeteria. ^[10]Schmitz, Hannah. VW streicht Currywurst – weitere Kantine wird fleischfrei. Wolfsburg, Germany: Wolfsburger Nachrichten. 9 August 2021. Accessed August 2021 at https://www.wolfsburger-nachrichten.de/wolfsburg/vw-das-werk/article232999923/VW-streicht-Currywurst-weitere-Kantine-wird-fleischfrei.html

The change was driven by Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess, who said he wanted employee’s food to be healthier, and Volkswagen’s Head of Gastronomy, Hostelery, and Catering since 2020, two-Michelin star chef Nils Potthast.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who had also formerly been on the board of Volkswagen, was outraged at the removal of currywurst from the menu and said it would not have been allowed if he were still on the board. ^[11]Ex-German Chancellor bemoans currywurst loss at VW. Deutschewelle. 11 August 2021. Accessed August 2021 at https://p.dw.com/p/3yqOZ

For the administrative workers who miss their currywurst, however, another nearby company cafeteria still offered it — alongside new vegan and vegetarian versions of it. Volkswagen’s sausage plant began making a vegetarian version of its sausage in 2010. ^[12]Where can I buy VW currywurst in the US? Elgin VW website. 19 March 2020. Accessed August 2021 at https://www.elginvw.com/blog/where-can-i-buy-vw-currywurst-in-the-us/

See also: Volkswagen Sausage, Volkswagen Ketchup

History Notes

Currywurst started appearing in Germany in the 1950s. There is heated debate about how, where, and with whom it originated.

In 1993, a writer named Uwe Timm published a book called “The Discovery of Currywurst” (Die Entdeckung der Currywurst). In the book, he posits that it was probably invented by a woman named Lena Brücker who ran a food kiosk in Hamburg, at the end of World War II. This is often cited by some as proof that it didn’t originate in Berlin, but what such people don’t seem to have twigged onto is that not only was Timm’s book a novel, but also that there was no such woman named Lena Brücker — he made her up. She’s a fictitious character.

Berliners believe that currywurst was created by a Berlin woman named Herta Charlotte Heuwer (30 June 1913 – 3 July 1999.) She claimed to have invented a tomato sauce with twelve curry spices, and to have remembered the exact date and place: 4 September 1949 at her Imbissstand in the Charlottenburg area of West Berlin, near Stuttgart Place. She said it was a rainy night, with no customers, and that she invented it out of boredom. ^[13]”Es war in einer regnerischen Herbstnacht des Jahres 1949, am 4. September. Es goss kleene Kinderköppe, kein Mensch war an meiner Bude. Aus Langeweile rührte ich Gewürze mit Tomatenmark zusammen. Und es schmeckte herrlich.”

The legend says that some of the foundational ingredients in her currywurst sauce were a product of the times, being military ration items obtained from trades with British soldiers:

“Herta Heuwer, owner of a food stand in 1949, acquired tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and curry powder from British Troops by trading them spirits. At the time, Berlin was still under the control of the British ^[14]Ed: actually, the British only controlled one of four sectors, but the Charlottenburg area, where Heuwer was, was under British Administration and soldiers were introducing new foods and eating habits. Once Heuwer was in possession of the new ingredients, she then combined them and poured the resulting sauce over a bratwurst.” ^[15]Brehaut, Laura. Is it really the ‘wurst thing’? A currywurst coin commemorating the legendary Berlin street snack gets a mixed reaction from fans. Toronto, Canada: National Post. 15 January 2019. Accessed August 2021 at https://nationalpost.com/life/food/is-it-really-the-wurst-thing-a-currywurst-coin-commemorating-the-legendary-berlin-street-snack-gets-a-mixed-reaction-from-fans

Another version says she acquired the ketchup from U.S. troops:

“She experimented with two ingredients brought by the Allied powers: ketchup from the Americans and curry powder from the British.” ^[16]Brehaut, Laura. Is it really the ‘wurst thing’? A currywurst coin commemorating the legendary Berlin street snack gets a mixed reaction from fans. Toronto, Canada: National Post. 15 January 2019. Accessed August 2021 at https://nationalpost.com/life/food/is-it-really-the-wurst-thing-a-currywurst-coin-commemorating-the-legendary-berlin-street-snack-gets-a-mixed-reaction-from-fans

She called the sauce “Chillup Sauce” and received German patent number 721319 for it on 15 January 1959. Her stand became very successful and eventually she had nineteen people working for her to help serve the throng of customers. She used Brühwurst as the sausage, with skin. Later, Kraft tried to buy out her recipe and her patent rights, but she refused. Her tomato sauce had Worcestershire sauce in it. Sadly, when she died, she took her sauce recipe to the grave with her, not even sharing it with her husband.

A memorial plaque has been erected on the site of her Imbissstand, on Kantstraße at the corner of Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße.

Herta Heuwer memorial plaque. Malud / wikimedia / 2005 / CC BY-SA 3.0

A special silver coin (selling for 13 euros) was issued in 2019 by the Staatliche Münze Berlin (Berlin State Mint) to mark the 70th anniversary of the creation. ^[17]Brehaut, Laura. Is it really the ‘wurst thing’? A currywurst coin commemorating the legendary Berlin street snack gets a mixed reaction from fans. Toronto, Canada: National Post. 15 January 2019. Accessed August 2021 at https://nationalpost.com/life/food/is-it-really-the-wurst-thing-a-currywurst-coin-commemorating-the-legendary-berlin-street-snack-gets-a-mixed-reaction-from-fans

70 years of Currywurst coin. Staatliche Münze Berlin

Currywurst was banned in the exclusive Brandenburg Gate area of Berlin at the end of 2004, owing to complaints about the smell of the sausages and curry, and the attendant noise of the customers, lodged by the nearby upscale Adlon Hotel, who said that it was disturbing guests such as Bill Clinton. There was general outrage, however, and ensuant campaigns by currywurst fans such as Madonna and then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. As a bureaucratic compromise, one stall, run by an Elke Zieschang, was allowed to re-open in June 2005. Chosen through a tendering process, she was required to fit her stall with an extractor fan to absorb the smells. As a nod to the times, she also committed to using only organic sausages.

A museum dedicated to currywurst opened in Berlin in 2009, but closed at the end of 2018 owing to the end of the lease on the space, and never reopened. Entry was 11 euros (adults) and 7 euros (children). And yes, you could also get a currywurst for lunch while there. ^[18]Zen, Jessica. The currywurst craze. Washington, DC: Stars and Stripes Europe Newspaper. 15 September 2018. Accessed August 2021 at https://europe.stripes.com/lifestyle/currywurst-craze

German Currywurst Museum at 70 Schützenstraße, Berlin, in 2015. Orderinchaos / wikimedia / 2015 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Literature & Lore

Best of the Wurst (2004) is a documentary (23 minutes) by American film-maker Grace Lee about currywurst in Berlin.

“It is a short documentary about a street food in Berlin called “Curry Wurst,” which is a curry sausage that they sell all over the city. The film is about a woman who is searching for the best “Curry Wurst” in Berlin, but it is really about the different characters she meets as she comes across in her journey. So it really is a portrait of Berliners today.” ^[19]Kang, Angela. INTERVIEW: The Grace Lee Project – Interview with Grace Lee. Los Angeles, California: UCLA International Institute. 19 August 2003. Accessed August 2021 at https://international.ucla.edu/institute/article/5892

This film was also available for viewing at the now-defunct curry museum in Berlin.

Language Notes

Currywurst is often spelt as two words in English, “Curry Wurst.”

Sources

Berlijns Currywurst Museum permanent gesloten. The Hague, Netherlands: Nu.nl. 29 December 2018. Accessed August 2021 at https://www.nu.nl/cultuur-overig/5655140/berlijns-currywurst-museum-permanent-gesloten.html

Bruce, Chris. Mein Gott! Volkswagen Abolishing Currywurst At HQ For Meat-Free Alternatives. Motor1.com. 9 August 2021. Accessed August 2021 at https://www.motor1.com/news/525544/volkswagen-wolfsburg-currywurst-gone-vegan/

Connolly, Kate. Currywurst returns to the Brandenburg Gate. The Telegraph. London. 22 June 2005.

DW staff. The Triumphant Return of the Currywurst. Deutsche Welle. 21 June 2005.

Flata, Sabine. Die Rückkehr der Currywurst. Die Welt. Berlin, Germany. 21 June 2005.

Teenagers snacking on currywurst. Max Mann / Pixabay.com / 2017/ CC0 1.0