The humble currywurst gets its own museum
Germans eat more than 800 million currywurst a year. To celebrate the country's 60-year love affair with the sausage doused in ketchup and spices, the currywurst is getting its very own museum.
Tucked away behind the infamous Checkpoint Charlie border crossing that marked the beginning of the Soviet-sector in occupied Berlin, the city's newest museum dedicates its 600 square meters (6,460 square feet) to the currywurst. The German Currywurst Museum is set to throw open its doors to the public on Saturday, Aug. 15...
...Visitors coming into the museum will be greeted by a life-size currywurst
mascot and a replica fast-food stand. A small gift shop selling currywurst
memorabilia is the most commercial aspect of the museum.
Otherwise, the small space offers an interactive tour that traces the
currywurst's small beginnings to today's success and a touch and smell
journey through the different spices that make up the traditional curry
sauce.
Who invented the currywurst?
Despite a heated debate over whether the sauce was invented in Berlin or
Germany's port city of Hamburg the museum has given the honor to Herta
Heuwer, a Berliner living in the former British sector. Looking to provide a
tasty snack on postwar rations, Heuwer produced her winning mix of tomato
ketchup and 12 spices in 1949. Loewer justifies his choice with the patent
certificate dated 1951 and bearing the number 721319.
The museum also offers a quick tour of the currywurst's appearances in pop
culture. Ketchup bottles double as headphones through which visitors can
listen to German pop icon Herbert Groenemeyer singing about the cure-all
currywurst as well as German comedian and jazz musician Helge Schneider with
his 2005 release of "The Chip Stand."
With Berliners alone consuming 70 million of the spicy snack, the currywurst
is more than just a sausage, at least according to Loewer.
"The currywurst is a cult icon for Berlin. People from all walks of life
enjoy the experience of the occasional currywurst. Its uncomplicated, and
that is what people want and like," he says.
Read entire article at Deutsche Welle
Tucked away behind the infamous Checkpoint Charlie border crossing that marked the beginning of the Soviet-sector in occupied Berlin, the city's newest museum dedicates its 600 square meters (6,460 square feet) to the currywurst. The German Currywurst Museum is set to throw open its doors to the public on Saturday, Aug. 15...
...Visitors coming into the museum will be greeted by a life-size currywurst
mascot and a replica fast-food stand. A small gift shop selling currywurst
memorabilia is the most commercial aspect of the museum.
Otherwise, the small space offers an interactive tour that traces the
currywurst's small beginnings to today's success and a touch and smell
journey through the different spices that make up the traditional curry
sauce.
Who invented the currywurst?
Despite a heated debate over whether the sauce was invented in Berlin or
Germany's port city of Hamburg the museum has given the honor to Herta
Heuwer, a Berliner living in the former British sector. Looking to provide a
tasty snack on postwar rations, Heuwer produced her winning mix of tomato
ketchup and 12 spices in 1949. Loewer justifies his choice with the patent
certificate dated 1951 and bearing the number 721319.
The museum also offers a quick tour of the currywurst's appearances in pop
culture. Ketchup bottles double as headphones through which visitors can
listen to German pop icon Herbert Groenemeyer singing about the cure-all
currywurst as well as German comedian and jazz musician Helge Schneider with
his 2005 release of "The Chip Stand."
With Berliners alone consuming 70 million of the spicy snack, the currywurst
is more than just a sausage, at least according to Loewer.
"The currywurst is a cult icon for Berlin. People from all walks of life
enjoy the experience of the occasional currywurst. Its uncomplicated, and
that is what people want and like," he says.