Running head: CURRYWURST 1

Tyler DeBeauclair

Professor Lacey

ENGL 111

10/03/19

Ball, A. (2019, September 5). Currywurst turns 70: The Berlin dish that wouldn’t exist without

the British. The Local DE, p. B2.

Currywurst has impacted history in more ways than one. This food had a museum made about it,

a song written about it, and started a physical fight between politicians. Those are all the

intriguing opening facts that the article starts out mentioning. Currywurst is typically defined as a

dish of sliced and grilled pork sausage that is covered in ketchup. After it is cut up and covered

in sausage, curry powder is sprinkled on top and sold in all parts of Germany. According to the

currywurst museum, this fast food dish was first created on September 4, 1949 in Berlin. The

story is told that a German woman named Herta Heuwer came up with it during World War II. It

was due to the presence and mixing culture brought by the British. This time was known as the

post-war period and the allied powers brought new eating habits. These included the introduction

of new spices or “curries”, and the consumption of ketchup on their steak. This prompted

Heuwer to buy curry powder and serve it to her family with sausages. To this day currywurst is

known as a German food, but it wouldn’t have ever been created without the British and Allied

Powers. The article was designed for an audience with knowledge of Berlin history and a desire

to learn. It had a very old tone to the writing of it.

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Clayton, E. (2016, December 10). Nutcracker soldiers, glühwein and currywurst – festive

delights at Belin’s Christmas markets. Bradford Telegraph and Argus, p. B6.

Emma Clayton talks about her personal experience when she spent Christmas in Germany.

Clayton writes in a very easy-going manner and engages audiences of all ages. She does base a

majority of the article on her own experiences and this gives the reader a first-hand point of

view. The article is very in depth on the details such as smell and sight of Christmas there.

Currywurst plays a big part in the celebration of Christmas, and it is sold at all the street corners.

The night of Christmas Eve Emma traveled to Berliner Weihnachtszei. This is their world-

famous market that is only assembled around Christmas time. It is located at Alexander Platz in

the German capital. She talks about how the locals refer to it as “Alex”. It is ultimately a large

square in Berlin's central district that gets jazzed up every holiday season. Most know it from the

proximity to the landmark TV Tower. This tower is really a multi floor building filled with

wooden stands of local and foreign vendors selling an array of Christmas gifts and decorations.

Along with those vendors she recalls the smell and flavor of multiple curry spices. Holiday food

and drink was sampled all around in hopes of selling their product over the other competition.

This famous market dates back multiple decades and can be associated with the leaving of the

allied powers. This was when currywurst first started to become a common street food. These

two have gone hand in hand for many years.

Gollnhofer, J. F., Weijo, H. A., & Schouten, J. W. (2019). Consumer movements and value

regimes: Fighting food waste in Germany by building alternative object pathways.

Journal of Consumer Research, 46(3), 460-482.

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This paper is very formal and somewhat challenging to understand. It has a very high-level

analysis of food waste in Europe and talks about consumer movements efforts to fight this. This

paper is not for the average reader and requires a preexisting base of knowledge about the subject

to understand. Consumer movements strive to change markets when those markets produce value

outcomes that conflict with consumers' higher-order values. It goes into detail about a study

previously done that argues how consumer movements primarily seek to challenge these value

outcomes. They do this by campaigning for alternative higher-order values or by pressuring

institutions to change market governance mechanisms. It discusses how there is a lot of politics

behind these efforts. Further detail is discussed about building on and refining value regimes.

This paper discusses a new type of consumer movement strategy where consumers work together

to create alternative options. The study draws from ethnographic fieldwork in the German

retail food sector and shows how building alternative object pathways allowed a consumer

movement to minimize the value of excessive production of food waste. The newly created plan

it explains offers a new and more holistic way of understanding and contextualizing. The

audience for this paper is highly educated people with knowledge of politics and interest.

Currywurst is brought into this topic when it goes over how and where consumer movements

mobilize for change. They are taking the fight to the streets at a basic level being street food.

Currywurst is one of the most common street foods and has some of the highest waste ratios. It

also provides a new tool for understanding systemic creation and the role of consumers in such

processes.
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Haddix, C. M., Kraig, B. & Sen, C. T. (2017). The Chicago food encyclopedia. Urbana, IL:

University of Illinois Press.

The Chicago Food Encyclopedia is a far-ranging portrait of an American culinary paradise. If

one chose to look into anything involving food and history of Chicago, then this is for you. The

encyclopedia has hundreds of talking points about food of the past and present, interview details

from culinary professionals, and a good dose of culinary technique. This book talks about the

growth of the Chicago food industry and where Chicago got its culinary roots. There are

hundreds of mouth-watering images that will make the reader eager to go out and eat. It also

includes colorful images that will help set the mood for the reader and transport them to dining

rooms and food stands all across Chicago. This food book is written for those looking for

somewhere to get lunch and those interested in doing a research report. It has sources from a

roster of writers, scholars, and industry experts pays tribute to an expansive (and still expanding)

food history that not only helped build Chicago but fed a growing nation. One of the ways they

were inspired was by the centuries-old Christkindles market in Nuremberg, Germany. In 1996

the City of Chicago held the first Christkindles market Chicago in downtown Chicago. At this

event vendors sell typical German dishes as sausages (including currywurst), potato pancakes,

and strudel. This has become a yearly event and is hosted in to this day. It allows old roots from

Germany and new cross combinations to be shared and expressed. Currywurst plays a big role in

this event as there as many new spice combinations and different curry powders that are

introduced.
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Naccarato, P., & LeBesco, K. (2008). Edible ideologies: Representing food and meaning.

Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Retrieved from

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=10&sid=c268ea31-19dd-433b-8c83-

f072ff7b7f5e%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=e000xn

a&AN=232969

Edible Ideologies talks about the meaning of food in our lives. It has a language that is very

casual and laid back. All readers will understand this paper, but it is mainly intended for this with

an invested interest in the culture and history of food. It is a German based paper with the intent

to educate about multiple different cultures and their foods. The paper is very well formatted

with pictures and interactive attachments. It is also very easy to navigate. Currywurst is brought

up as a shining star in the world of German food and cooking. It is simple enough to make that

even the poorest or “culinarily challenged” can produce it. While at the same it can and has been

taken to new heights by incredible culinary chefs. The history of this food is incredibly

meaningful as it came about just after the war and was a light in a time of darkness. It was

something new that Germany had never tasted before and helped temporarily take away the pain

and loss of war. This food is culturally associated with a thought of rebirth and growth. It was

there at a big point in history and will forever be associated with Germany and their culture.

Hannon, M. (2011, October 5). Currywurst: The evolution of Berlins popular street food.

National Public Radio. Retrieved from

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https://www.npr.org/sections/nprberlinblog/2011/10/05/141048303/currywurst-the-

evolution-of-berlins-popular-street-food

This paper has a main topic of, and it goes over the past, present, and future of it. It is written in

an easy to understand dialogue and intended for the everyday reader. It provides a case for the

traditional German street food known as "currywurst" being the most popular and best of all

German delicacies. It allows outside observers an opportunity to understand the taste of this food

and indulge in a little post-war history. A unique aspect of this paper is the incorporation of food

and the affect it has on cultural interactions. The author discusses how the universal need for

food can bind individuals and groups together both spiritually and ethnically. It goes over the

history and how currywurst origins are attributed specifically to the German capital. In 1949, a

resourceful German housewife, Herta Heuwer created this and the author briefly explains her

story. It then goes into a detailed explanation of how currywurst is made. It is composed of

German sausage, or wurst, sliced and doused in ketchup and sprinkled with curry powder. It was

an odd and unforeseen match, but currywurst became an overnight success and eventually a

staple of all German streets and backroads. The author has a history working in construction and

interviewed his fellow construction workers. He questioned them about currywurst and other

German cultures and foods. They talked about how they valued its high protein content, hint of

exotic flavor, and low cost.

Hudgins, S. (2018). The cult of currywurst. European Traveler Magazine, 1-3.

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What could be more German than currywurst: chunks of sausage, slathered with a sauce based

on the same ingredients as Anglo-American tomato ketchup? Its spiced with English

Worcestershire sauce, Hungarian paprika, and Indian-inspired curry powder (by way of Britain),

served with French fries on the side. This is the topic of the article, and from there the author

does a phenomenal job of changing topics and offering interesting details about currywurst. The

author gives a very casual tone to readers and has a very broad intended audience. Some German

cooks even add another multicultural twist: spiking the sauce with Caribbean and South

American peppers. This new version is a challenge to food eaters from across the world who

compete for the top-dog spot in their local currywurst "Hall of Fame." From its humble origin as

a street food in the country's war-torn capital, currywurst has risen to culinary cult status in

Germany, even rating its own museum. Pictures and facts are included about a museum devoted

entirely to currywurst. The museum opened in Berlin in 2009, on the dish's 60th birthday. It has

exhibits on everything you always wanted to know about currywurst but didn't know you wanted

to ask.

Pierce, B. (2017, May 8). A brief history of currywurst. The Culture Trip. Retrieved from

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/germany/articles/a-brief-history-of-currywurst/

What most have come to know as an integral part of Berlin’s beloved street food scene goes

much deeper than you might initially think. It’s not just cheap grab-n-go food, it’s a sign of

Berlin’s post-war resilience and its mindset to skyrocket onward. Most have become acquainted

with the ubiquitous grub, whether it be as a tourist treat or a late-night necessity. Its history is

simple yet complex, mirroring the dish itself. The author argues that like most things brought
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into existence in this world, it started with a woman, Herta Heuwer. Little did she know her

concoction would spiral into becoming a part of the iconic fabric of Germany’s capital. Unlike

other papers this one discusses the woman Herta and goes into her life more and not just her

creation of the new food. She was a woman of progress, a woman who had to become used to

her country as a constant war zone, and a woman who learned that, to evolve, meant to take the

good and keep building. Eventually she would make it to Berlin where she settled up in the West

and opened a fast-food stand. A plaque sits today where her shop once rolled out hot meals to the

hungry on the corner of Kant Strasse and Kaiser-Friedrich Strasse.

Slackman, J. (2011, January 26). National dish comes wrapped in foreign flavoring. The New

York Times, p. E8.

The New York Times published this article in 2011 as a part of their food edition. They were

discussing multiple different aspects of food and this one included currywurst. The author was

very formal in his writing but made the article easy to understand. This article was incredibly

well structured and was the most well written of any of these sources. It talked about many

different dishes from multiple different nationalities. The main point was how a lot of these well-

known dishes are very simple and even similar in some cases. They all just have very unique

factors that go on to play a big role in the taste as well as presentation. This is why the article

was titled “National dish comes wrapped in foreign flavoring”. The main food he focused on was

currywurst and how sausage already played a national role in Germany and many other cultures

around the world. It went into detail about the foreign flavor which ultimately turned into curry

powder. This was incorporated and inspired by soldiers from the Allied Powers who were in
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Germany at the time. This article is a great representation of the history and simplistic nature of

food and our cultures.

Timm, U. (1997). The invention of curried sausage (L. Vennewitz Trans.). New York, NY: New

Directions.

This article went deep into the detail and creation of Currywurst as well as its lack of popularity

across the world. Currywurst is incredibly popular in Germany, but it hasn’t made its way across

the world as some might expect. Don’t get me wrong, it is present in many other countries and

the author lists those. It just didn’t “explode” as some might have expected. The author made a

very logical argument for why this is and how this has affected all Germany because of it. There

were graphs as well as data from studies included. The most interesting aspect of this article

came near the end and this was the physiological relation. It talked about people are warry of

foods that are foreign and have a built-in instinct that says “no” to strange looking foods. To an

unbiased party currywurst is not very appealing to look at and the author explains how this could

be a reason for the lack of popularity. Humans have always been this way and unfortunately this

is just the nature of a food like this. The one counter argument he brought of which was

surprising in the love of foods such as chili hot dogs in the US which is not all that different from

currywurst. These look unappealing as well and to this comparison he did not go into detail or

have an answer.