Currywurst News

On June 30, the currywurst community celebrated the 100th birthday of Herta Heuwer, who invented and first sold the specially prepared wurst in Berlin in 1949. Even Google honored the currywurst with a doodle.

Somehow, I missed Herta's anniversary and nearly got rid of the column I wrote for the Badische Zeitung about it when two other articles appeared with new information about the currywurst. In an earlier blog, I went into the history of the wurst and described the situation here in Freiburg.

Freiburg's Lange Rote as currywurst (©BZ).

Although pizza, hamburger, and döner are in fierce competition as fast food, there is a community of fans, including workmen, teachers, medical doctors, clergymen, and professors, who stick to their currywurst. 

While the original currywurst is based on a "white" sausage made from finely ground veal, Freiburg uses the Lange Rote (Long Red) made from finely ground pork and bacon. Any sausage will do as currywurst, for the spicy sauce will overpower the wurst's taste. In fact, the sauce determines the quality of currywurst.

©BZ

At Breisach, Peter Glatter claims he offers possibly the best currywurst in Germany. As a base, you can choose between a white sausage (with or without skin), a red sausage, a cheese sausage, or even opt for merguez; the sauce stays the same. Peter reveals that it contains tomato ketchup, horseradish, and spices, but does not give away his top secret.

Another specialist is Bernd Gottschalk from Berlin, who serves currywurst in Hochdorf, a suburb of Freiburg. According to him, people walk miles (drive kilometers) to visit his stand, for he spices his wurst with a mixture of chili, Worcester sauce, and his Berlin dialect.

Investmentbanker Thomas Brauße
 in Frankfurt's bank district (©BZ).

The third person I would like you to meet is Thomas Brauße, an investment banker, as the Badische Zeitung called him, alluding to his former job in Frankfurt. When, in 2008, the housing bubble burst, the US trading platform Instinet fired him and all his fellow traders on the same floor simultaneously via e-mail.

Thomas saw a new market and opened a stand selling sausages in Frankfurt's finance district, serving currywurst to colleagues from his former trade (floor). The currywurst he sells for Euro 2.70 at his booth is called FWB, standing for Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Frankfurt Stock Exchange) but also for Frankfurter Worscht (sausage in the Frankfurt dialect) Börse. 

Soon, he will charge the same rate (but in British Pounds) in London's financial district, Canary Wharf, changing the name of his stand slightly to FSE for Frankfurt Stock Exchange or Frankfurt Sausage Exchange.

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