Herta Charlotte Heuwer (née Pöppel; 30 June 1913 – 3 July 1999) was a German chef. She owned and ran a food kiosk in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

. Heuwer is frequently credited with the invention of the

take-away A take-out (US, Canada, Philippines) or takeaway (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) is a prepared meal or other food items purchased at a restaurant or fast food outlet with the intent to eat elsewhere. A concept found in many ancient cultures, take ...

dish that would become the

currywurst ''Currywurst'' () is a fast food dish of German origin consisting of sausage with curry ketchup. It was invented in 1949 by Herta Heuwer, who began selling it at a food stand in West Berlin. The Deutsches Currywurst Museum estimated that 8 ...

, supposedly on 4 September 1949. The original currywurst was a boiled sausage, fried, with a sauce of

tomato paste Tomato paste is a thick paste made from tomatoes, which are cooked for several hours to reduce water content, straining out seeds and skins, and cooking the liquid again to reduce the base to a thick, rich concentrate. It is used to impart an i ...

Worcestershire sauce Worcestershire sauce or Worcester sauce (UK: ) is a fermented liquid condiment invented by pharmacists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins in the city of Worcester in Worcestershire, England, during the first half of the 19th century ...

curry powder Curry powder is a spice mix for curry originating from the Indian subcontinent, adapted from but not to be confused with the native spice mix of garam masala. History As commercially available in Western markets, curry powder is comparable t ...

and other ingredients. Heuwer was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

. In January 1951, she registered a trademark for her sauce, ''Chillup''. Heuwer moved her business to a larger facility at Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 59, which, during its heyday, was open day and night and employed 19 saleswomen. On 29 June 2003, the day before what would have been her 90th birthday, a commemorative plaque was unveiled by

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

Mayor Monika Thiemen at the site where Herta Heuwer invented the currywurst. Heuwer died in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, aged 86. The Berlin Currywurst is now a protected commodity, officially and properly recognized by the German Patent and Trademark Office. In her honor, the Berlin State Mint minted a commemorative medal in 2019 to mark the 70th anniversary of the invention of the Currywurst, on which she is depicted together with two currywursts. On 30 June 2013, the centenary of Heuwer's birthday, was celebrated with a

Google Doodle Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Bu ...

Other claims to currywurst

Two authors, Tim Koch and Gregor Lauenburger, argued that currywursts had been sold by Dutch-born Peter Hildebrand since 1936 at Peter Pomm’s Pusztetten-Stube in

Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

. The curry powder was ordered from

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, as "English recipe curry powder". Other sources claim that

was invented in

. Author

Uwe Timm Uwe Timm (; born 30 March 1940 in Hamburg) is a German writer. Life and work Uwe Timm was born in 1940 in Bad Kreuznach, and was the youngest son in his family. His brother, 16 years his senior, was a soldier in the and died in Ukraine in 1943 ...

contends in his novel ''The Discovery of Currywurst'' that he had eaten currywurst in Hamburg as early as 1947, but the inventor of Currywurst in his novel, Lena Brücker, is an admitted literary license. However, that did not prevent the former Hamburg Senator of the Interior

Ronald Schill Ronald Barnabas Schill (born 23 November 1958) is a former German judge, the founder of the German political parties Party for a Rule of Law Offensive (''Partei Rechtsstaatlicher Offensive''; also called PRO or "Schill party") and ''Pro DM/Schil ...

from honoring Lena Brücker in 2003. Food historians such as Petra Foede believe that, as with most culinary creation myths, several rather than a single person were involved in developing this dish, sausage sellers experimenting with various spice mixes in order to replace the tomato ketchup that was unavailable during the immediate postwar years.Petra Foede, ''Wie Bismarck auf den Hering kam. Kulinarische Legenden''. Kein & Aber, Zürich 2009; .

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heuwer, Herta 1913 births 1999 deaths Businesspeople from Königsberg German chefs Cuisine of Berlin