Herta Heuwer invented this in 1949 with curry powder from British soldiers and ketchup from the black market. Seventy million are eaten in Berlin every year.
About Currywurst
Berlin's defining street snack, a steamed then fried pork sausage sliced into rounds and doused with a tomato-ketchup and curry powder sauce; invented by Herta Heuwer at a Berlin Imbiss in 1949; 70 million consumed annually in Berlin alone; the Deutsches Currywurst Museum celebrated this humble masterpiece.
Berlin's Invention
Currywurst was created by Herta Heuwer at a West Berlin snack stall in 1949, when she mixed curry powder and ketchup, obtained from British soldiers, into a sauce and poured it over sliced fried sausage. The idea was simple and the post-war context specific, and together they made it the city's defining street food. Berliners now eat tens of millions of currywursts a year.
“The idea was simple and the post-war context specific, and together they made it the city's defining street food.”
The Sauce
The sauce is the dish. A base of tomato ketchup is spiced with curry powder, often with Worcestershire sauce and a little sweetness, into a thick condiment that coats the sliced sausage completely. A final dusting of curry powder over the top is non-negotiable, and each stand guards its own blend. The sausage, a plain fried pork wurst, is almost the vehicle.
With or Without Skin
A key choice is mit Darm or ohne Darm, with casing or without. The cased version snaps when bitten; the skinless one is softer and more uniform, and Berlin stalls tend to favour the latter. Either way the sausage is fried, sliced into rounds and buried in sauce, eaten with a small wooden fork.
A Berlin Icon
Currywurst is the taste of West Berlin in the reconstruction years, improvised, resourceful and unpretentious, and it has outlasted every change the city has been through since. It is eaten standing at an Imbiss with a bread roll or a paper tray of chips. The city even gave it a museum, a measure of how seriously Berlin takes its humblest food.
What to Expect
At a Berlin Imbiss, the currywurst arrives in a small cardboard tray, sliced rounds of sausage drowning in orange-red sauce, a wooden skewer to the side. The sauce is warm and slightly spiced. The diner eats the whole thing in under five minutes, standing at a counter, and wipes the tray with the small bread roll that comes with it.
Why Try It
Currywurst is the taste of West Berlin in the reconstruction era: improvised, resourceful, unpretentious and so consistently satisfying that it outlasted every economic and political transformation of the city.
Insider Tips
- Curry 36 at Mehringdamm U-Bahn and Konnopke's Imbiss under the Schönhauser Allee viaduct are the two best-known Berlin addresses.
- The sausage can be mit Darm (with casing, snappier) or ohne Darm (without, softer). Try both.
- Add extra curry powder to the sauce, the standard application is always slightly understated.
