The story of the Nuremberg Bratwurst
Portrait of butcher and sausage maker Hans Lengenfelder, who died in 1436. The master butcher is shown jointing a leg of pork. A hooked pole with large sausages can be seen in the background. Source: Hausbuch der Mendelschen Zwölfbrüderhausstiftung, Vol. 1, Nuremberg 1426–1549
Over 700 years in the making
Why is the Nuremberg Bratwurst so small? The sausage is only about 7 to 9 cm long and weighs no more than 25 g. Those are truly unusual dimensions for a sausage. To discover the real reason for these dainty delicacies, we need to go back several centuries.
In 1313, the Moritz Chapel was completed next to the majestic Church of St. Sebald, not far from the city’s main market and Town Hall. A few years later, we hear of “the kitchens at St. Sebald,” where a “little blue bell” was rung to call the hungry to come and eat. An inn and cookshop were added to the Moritz Chapel, which ultimately became Germany’s most famous tavern: the “Bratwurst Glöcklein.”
This tavern – along with the City of Nuremberg and of course the bratwurst itself – not only entertained both emperors and kings, but survived periods of famine and war. Through it all, the Nuremberg Bratwurst successfully adapted to eventually become what is probably the world’s most famous sausage. Follow this famous little specialty through the centuries.
Timeline
Documented evidence of a thriving bratwurst tradition in Nuremberg, Franconia, dates from around 1313. “Only prime pork cuts shall be used in the sausages,” declares a statute issued by Nuremberg City Council in 1313. The same text also appoints a municipal meat inspector, officially known as the “Würstlein.” By this time, production of the Nuremberg Bratwurst was already restricted to specialist sausage-makers. Every day, their wares were checked by the city’s butcher and market inspectors, who assessed the sausages to confirm strict adherence to the recipe, structure, meat quality, and water content. Any bratwursts found to be substandard were simply flung into the Pegnitz River.
The first written mention of the building now home to the “Zum Gulden Stern” tavern dates from this year. At least, that is what’s stated in the tavern’s own chronicle. Having endured the trials of time and been operated more or less continuously to the present day, the “Gulden Stern” therefore claims the title of the world’s oldest bratwurst tavern.
The size and price of Nuremberg sausages are first mentioned in the Nuremberg Butchers’ Ordinance. From one pound of sausage mixture, butchers are required to make five sausages for cookshops and four for private customers. In the 16th century, meat became much more expensive and so its quality worsened throughout Germany. But not in Nuremberg: the City Council allowed smaller sausages to be made, thus preserving the quality, flavor, and good reputation of the Nuremberg Bratwurst. Source: www.die-nuernberger-bratwurst.de
Judge and councilor Hans Stromer is sentenced to lifelong imprisonment in Debtors’ Tower for “seditious remarks and suspected disloyalty to the City,” As a member of a patrician family, Stromer will be granted one wish during his incarceration and so he asks to be served two Bratwursts every day. His wish is granted: he survives 38 years in the tower, gets through around 28,000 sausages and is therefore dubbed “Bratwurst Stromer.” “They must have been very good for him to have never become tired of them,” notes the city chronicler. Source: www.br.de
This confirms that good-quality meat has always been held in high regard in Nuremberg. Among other things, this ordinance comprehensively covers the city’s pork industry –
from the exclusive “use of pork meat” to provisions governing the annual allocation of butchers’ stalls.
Record dated October 13, 1558 – Nuremberg City Archives
Accession no. B 31 no. 1 (Court of Five, no. I: Register of Fines)
By the mid-16th century, the citizens of Nuremberg were already showing their love of bratwursts. As bratwurst market prices started to fall, the crafty butchers got creative – and invented a “lightweight” 25-gram sausage. The Council was incensed by the sixfold increase in price per kilo – but the sausages stayed as popular as ever. This new size – the “Wöschdla” – only became legal decades later.
In 1614, Nuremberg’s butchers were definitely betting on plenty of hungry mouths when they paraded through the streets “in festive dress on March 9, Ash Wednesday.” The chronicle takes its time to clearly paint the picture here: “Accompanied by shawms and bagpipes, the pork butchers’ journeymen processed through the city with a 493-ell (about 320 m) sausage made of fine bratwurst meat – and they would happily have stretched it to 500 ells.” www.die- nuernberger-bratwurst.de
Ban on the sale of cattle and other wrongdoings with the imposition of fines. Record from the Nuremberg City Archives dated September 16, 1720 (inv. no. E/5 47 no. 44/26): “(…) the repeatedly prohibited and highly damaging practice of buying up livestock before it reaches the market has again become so widespread that scarcely any cattle – and likewise few sheep or pigs – are brought to the public market.”
The record describes how livestock middlemen met traders on the road to buy up their animals before they were brought to market – to the detriment of both the butchers and citizens of Nuremberg. The result was “an irksome and unnecessary increase in prices for meat.”
In the early 19th century, Nuremberg emerges as a magnet for Romance-era travelers. The beauty of the city’s medieval architectural ensembles is rediscovered, turning its entire Old Town into a tourist attraction. The bratwurst inns are quick to pick up on this marketing opportunity and benefit from the influx of sightseers. The Bratwurst Glöcklein, where Albrecht Dürer was apparently a regular, becomes one of the Empire’s most famous taverns.
Record dated May 25, 1809:
"The keeping and fattening of pigs in this City has already been wholly prohibited by earlier ordinances issued by the sovereign authority. This practice is not only entirely contrary to the proper order of the City, but the foul smell spread by pigsties is also especially burdensome and unpleasant for local neighborhoods."
Nuremberg City Archives, inv. no. A 6 no. 3149
“The Shah of Persia reportedly sent a cable asking for another sausage on his fork.” Bratwurst taverns had become synonymous with German hospitality and their culinary offerings were duly showcased at the 1905 Liège World’s Fair.
The Second World War has ended, but Nuremberg’s historical city is no more. And with it most of the City’s time-honored bratwurst taverns. Some will never be rebuilt, while others – like the “Bratwurstherzle” – are reconstructed in the postwar years at another location.
For centuries, Nuremberg’s City Council has kept a watchful eye on the quality of the city’s rostbratwursts and has thus been a key part of their success story. 1998 marked the last council session addressing their quality and dimensions – now officially recorded. The Nuremberg Bratwurst Protection Association is formed in the same year.
Where can you find the oldest bratwurst tavern? In Nuremberg… or Regensburg? Back and forth it goes between Franconians and their neighbors from the Upper Palatinate. They finally come to an agreement: Regensburg has the oldest tradition, while Nuremberg has the oldest building.
The designation “Nuremberg Rostbratwurst” has had European Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) since 2003. This indication is a guarantee that all sausages bearing the designation “Nuremberg Rostbratwurst” have been manufactured within the Nuremberg city limits according to the official recipe. Accordingly, Nuremberg Bratwursts are the first sausage in the world to be given protected status as a regional specialty.
The Nuremberg Bratwurst Prize was awarded for the first time in 2004.The accolade went to Kerstin Greiner, a journalist at the Süddeutsche Zeitung, who had mailed out 22 hampers with German regional specialties to recipients around the world. One of these was the Nuremberg Bratwurst, which was the clear winner among competing foods like sprats from Kiel, cabbage rolls, blood sausage, gingerbread from Aachen, and brawn. In last place was Munich’s famous white sausage.
In 2005, Wolfgang Bald received the Bratwurst Prize for his “Last Bratwurst before America” in Portugal: in Cabo de San Vicente, at the far western tip of Europe, he runs a snack stand called the “Last Bratwurst before America”, grilling up roughly a thousand sausages a day.
By putting his name to EC Regulation No. 1257 of July 15, 2003, the former Austrian EU Commissioner granted the Nuremberg Bratwurst/Nuremberg Rostbratwurst the status of a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) – the first sausage in the world to receive this distinction.
Thanks to her passion for bratwurst – sometimes mischievous, often endearing, always extremely funny – Hellinger has managed to give the Nuremberg Bratwurst its rightful place in the world of art. Something to which her exhibitions and publications “The Bratwurst – an Artistic Treat” offer an eloquent visual testimony.
A special “measuring fork” was designed for symbolic measurement of the length. Dr. Hartmut Frommer (former honorary chair), liked to use the fork as a hands-on way of showing just how small Nuremberg’s signature sausages truly are. In 2008, he also received the Nuremberg Bratwurst Prize for his tireless commitment.
The “3 im Weckla” (“3 in a Roll”) was invented during the Nuremberg Christmas Market – which is why this institution received the sixth Nuremberg Bratwurst Prize in 2009. This honored the fact that the “3 im Weckla” neatly extended the Bratwurst service repertoire to events with an on-the-go format.
Recognizing his years of work in continuing and maintaining the Nuremberg Bratwurst tradition with the “St. Sebald Chefs” – with his bratwurst taverns “Bratwursthäusle”, the “Goldenes Posthorn,” and the “Bratwurstglöcklein im Handwerkerhof” – Werner Behringer received the Bratwurst Prize in 2010.
1. FC Nürnberg sells around 350,000 Nuremberg Bratwursts during each Bundesliga season. A fact that has not only made the bratwursts an important part of every home game for local supporters but has also made the sausages from Nuremberg increasingly popular among away fans. This won the team the eighth Nuremberg Bratwurst Prize in 2011.
In 2012, the prize went to celebrity and Michelin-starred chef Alfons Schuhbeck, who has deep Bavarian roots like the Nuremberg Bratwurst but has also built an international culinary reputation. “The simplest is the best, when you simply have a good starting product.” The chef and the bratwurst have crossed paths on many an occasion in his career – as in his book “My Classics,” for example. Schuhbeck has therefore helped to bring this dainty Nuremberg delicacy into the world of fine dining.
In 2013, the Nuremberg Butchers’ Guild received the 10thBratwurst Prize on behalf of all of Nuremberg’s butchers. After all, it was the city’s master butchers who created the Nuremberg Rostbratwurst and gave it those qualities – first and foremost its premium ingredients and flavor – that have made it an instantly recognizable high-quality product and likewise a symbol of the City of Nuremberg that is known and loved worldwide. And kept up those standards throughout the centuries, despite the lack of legal protection for most of that time.
The City of Nuremberg is a founding member of the Protection Association and has always been keen to promote the Nuremberg Bratwurst. The product specifications were duly reaffirmed in a session of the Nuremberg City Council on March 18, 1998. In 2014, Lord Mayor Dr. Ulrich Maly accepted the 11th Nuremberg Bratwurst Prize on behalf of all of the staff working at Nuremberg Town Hall during the exhibition opening ceremony at the Fembohaus.
The Society for the Protection of the Nuremberg Bratwurst (Schutzverband Nürnberger Bratwürste e.V.) opened the new Nuremberg Bratwurst Museum on November 19, 2021. Visitors can learn about the colorful history of the world-famous Nuremberg specialty in a 100 square-meter space.
Just like its namesake, the Bratwurstgasse (“sausage alley”) is very small and very short. The idea for the Bratwurstgasse came from the radio hosts Yase and Mark from Radio Energy, who wanted to set a monument to the Nuremberg bratwurst. It was unveiled on November 19 and is now part of the Trödelmarkt, where pigs were traded at one time.
At the anniversary celebration of the first year of the Nuremberg Bratwurst Museum and Bratwurstgasse Nuremberg, Dr. Rainer Heimler presents the 12th Bratwurst Prize on behalf of the Nuremberg Bratwurst Protection Association to the Radio Energy team
Yase and Mark. As Heimler explains, it’s this Morning Team that deserves the credit for the Nuremberg Bratwurst finally getting its own “Bratwurst Alley” in the heart of the
city. This year’s Bratwurst Prize is presented as a “Bratwurst Lamp,” handcrafted by Nuremberg sculptor Robert Scholz.
At the official opening of the 50th Nuremberg Old Town Festival, the Nuremberg Bratwurst Protection Association joins Bavarian State Prime Minister Markus Söder and Lord Mayor of Nuremberg Marcus König on the Old Town Society’s stage to present the 13th Bratwurst Prize toDr. Michael Fraas. “Thanks to his dedicated commitment to this project, we were able to secure the perfect address for our Nuremberg Bratwurst Museum in 2021 – ‘Bratwurstgasse 1.’ While we appreciate that this is naturally a gift from the City of Nuremberg, we would nonetheless like to award the prize to Dr. Fraas as the person whose efforts made it possible to gain the support of the relevant committees in the city administration,” explained Dr. Rainer Heimler, Chairman of the Nuremberg Bratwurst Protection Association. “The Nuremberg Bratwurst is an important part of Nuremberg’s local economy and culture, and an export product that is popular all over the world. Bratwursts also taste amazing!” said Fraas in his acceptance speech.