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.
Currywurst was invented by Herta Heuwer at a West Berlin Imbiss stall in 1949, when she obtained curry powder and ketchup from British soldiers and combined them into a sauce that she poured over a sliced fried pork sausage. The simplicity of the idea and the specificity of the post-war Berlin context explain why it became Berlin's defining street food. An estimated 70 million currywursts are consumed in Berlin annually.
“The simplicity of the idea and the specificity of the post-war Berlin context explain why it became Berlin's defining street food.”
The sauce is the dish. A base of tomato ketchup is combined with curry powder, Worcestershire sauce and occasionally other spices to produce a thick, slightly sweet, mildly spiced condiment that covers the sliced sausage completely. The sausage itself — a plain fried pork sausage, sometimes skinless — is almost secondary. The curry powder sprinkled on top after the sauce is applied is non-negotiable.
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. You eat the whole thing in under five minutes standing at a counter and wipe 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.
