Sausage! The Curry Wurst Museum in Berlin

Isa with an image of Currywurst


You might think it weird for us as vegetarians to visit the „Curry Wurst Museum“ – a Berlin museum that is dedicated to a specific variety of German sausage (Wurst). But we went out of curiosity rather than of culinary interest. As vegetarian travellers in other countries, we are also always interested in local food – veggie or not (be it Egypt, Japan, or Kyrgyzstan). And on a practical note, the Berlin Curry Wurst Museum promised some undemanding diversion in an otherwise busy writing day.

As one would expect, there is not much actually to see in such a museum in terms of “original art work” or artefacts. It is more like an entertaining read plus hands-on activities loosely grouped around the Curry Wurst theme. Curry Wurst is a fried pork sausage cut up into slices, seasoned with a curry-tomato sauce, and topped with curry powder. It is served either with a bun or with French Fries. By the way we also went to the French Fries museum in Bruges, which might well warrant another independent blog post… Meanwhile, see also Chocolate, waffles and fries.

The Berlin Curry Wurst

Curry Wurst is such a famous fast food in Berlin that people visit explicitly to taste it. Nowadays, guided Curry Wurst tours are offered here. Berlin is where the Curry Wurst was allegedly invented, but the dish is also widespread in the West German Ruhr district. A novel by the German author Uwe Timm even claims Hamburg as the birthplace of the Curry Wurst.

interior of Berlin Currywurst museum

Most widely acknowledged as inventor of the yummy snack, however, is Herta Heuwer. She was a street stall vendor in Berlin in the after-war years. As there was no mustard available to be sold along with the traditional Bratwurst, she experimented with other ingredients she could get hold on. Then-exotic curry powder was among them, as she was operating in the British sector. Just imagine what she would have done with Mayonnaise in the French sector or vodka from the Russians….

So, Herta Heuwer mixed tomato sauce and several other ingredients and came up with a new kind of sausage dish that quickly became a top seller. She kept the recipe for her curry sauce forever a secret. However, she revealed as much as never to use ketchup but always concentrated tomato paste as a base.

travel blogger Natascha trying her hands at serving Curry Wurst

Hands on the Curry Wurst!

We quite enjoyed the many hands-on features in the museum. Some were educational, like a spice-smelling riddle in the Spice Room. Curry is made out of 16 different spices. Five of these you should be able to recognise by sniffing – quite difficult, it turned out. Others are just fun, like the computer-based game where you have to prepare different orders of Curry Wurst as fast as you can. There is a Curry Wurst street stall you can pose in, and a comfy sofa in the shape of a giant Currywurst. What we liked best were the giant French fries to carry around.

Natascha with giant pommes frittes at Berlin Currywurst museum

We are a bit reluctant to admit it, but we really had fun at the Curry Wurst Museum. At the end we got a small portion of the real thing in a paper cup. And yes, there was also a vegan version of the Berlin Curry Wurst on offer. The guy behind the counter took two suspiciously looking longish things wrapped in aluminium foil out of a cupboard. In fact it was some sort of oven, as we realized later. He then cut them into slices and drowned them in tomato sauce („classic“ and „chilli“). By far the most disappointing part of the museum – we’ve had tastier vegan Currywurst.

Vegan curry wurst in the Berlin Curry Wurst Museum

Where is the Curry Wurst Museum Berlin?

Currywurst Museum
Schützenstr.70 (near Checkpoint Charlie)
10117 Berlin
Open daily 10–18 h, entrance fee for adults 11 Euro

NB: We had no sponsoring for our trip to the Berlin Curry Wurst Museum.

Never miss a new post! Get notifications about new posts straight into your inbox!

Keep it for later:

2 Comments

  1. Maybe you should try the German poetry form of Schüttelreim in English? (“shaken rhyme”: a rhyming couplet with a humorous effect caused by swapping of initial consonants)
    Es klapperten die Klapperschlangen
    bis ihre Klappern schlapper klangen.
    That should be possible in English, too, although it’s not so popular. I’ve only found a few:
    From rose to rose they flutter by,
    hummingbird and butterfly.
    The expedition (polar) soured
    because the gear was solar powered.
    from http://www.tufts.edu/~bhasselb/shuttlesamp.html

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *