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 (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

. Heuwer is frequently credited with the invention of the

take-away A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...

dish that would become the

currywurst Currywurst () is a fast food dish of German origin consisting of steamed, fried sausage, usually pork (german: Bratwurst), typically cut into bite-sized chunks and seasoned with curry ketchup, a sauce based on spiced ketchup or tomato paste to ...

, 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 by cooking tomatoes for several hours to reduce the water content, straining out the seeds and skins, and cooking the liquid again to reduce the base to a thick, rich concentrate. It is used to impart an intens ...

, Worcestershire sauce,

curry powder Curry powder is a spice mix originating from the Indian subcontinent where it is typically called garam masala. History Key ingredients of curry powder consist of ginger, garlic, fennel, mace, cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon and turmeric ...

and other ingredients. Heuwer was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

. In January 1951, she registered a trademark for her sauce, ''Chillup''. The composition of her sauce remains a secret to this day - because the recipe of her "chillup" is still unknown and she had destroyed all written records of it years before her death. 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 and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

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

Other claims to currywurst

Other sources claim that

was invented in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. Author

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

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/Schill ...

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

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