Of Currywurst and Communism

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Berlin is a city of many mysteries, but I am trying to get to the root of one in particular: the Berliner passion for currywurst. Before coming here, several friends had told me I must try currywurst, since it is a typical Berlin streetfood. But I don't think I really understood what I was getting myself into when, right after arriving last Thursday, I stepped up to a vendor and asked for my first one. What materialized in front of me was a bratwurst sliced and drenched in a thick, sweet red/brown sauce, dusted with curry powder. And it came with a side of fries covered in mayo. Basically, heartburn on a paper plate. For a place that takes sausages so seriously, it seemed an odd invention, but it is amazingly popular. Yesterday, I joined a few of my fellow seminar participants as they sought out one of the stands, Curry 36, in a corner of Kreuzberg, that supposedly offered the city's best currywurst (or at least one of the best!). Whether due to the fact that I am settling into the rhythms of the city, or it was indeed a better dish, I found that I enjoyed this concoction much more. The bratwurst was flavorful, with a nice crispness. The sauce was homemade - and not so lurid! The accompanying fries were also a cut above what I had had before. The ambiance probably also played a role in my enjoyment of this currywurst. Appreciative connoisseurs crowded around the standing tables, while a sudden summer rain drummed on the canopy above. It felt like a real Berlin moment...

But the main reason I am in this city is not to evaluate the quality of various currywursts. Rather, I am here to explore the philosophy behind the peaceful revolutions that swept through East-Central Europe in 1989. Each day my fellow seminar participants and I trek over to the Haus der Demokratie und Menschrechte (The House of Democracy and Human Rights), a center used by a number of the organizations that grew out of the original citizens groups that led the revolution in East Germany. We spend the morning learning about the historical background - the earlier revolutions in 1953 (East Germany), 1956 (Hungary), and 1968 (Czechoslovakia) - and dissecting the ideas of some of the prominent dissidents - Vaclav Havel, Adam Michnik, and Gyorgy Konrad. Our group is an eclectic one, composed of teachers of history and English, from elementary through high school; some are quite young, relatively new to teaching, while others have been teaching for decades. Our discussions have been lively so far!

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Perhaps I was too hasty dismissing the importance of my currywurst explorations. It just dawned on me that it might have an important connection to our studies of the east-west divide in Germany, since its murky origins predate the split. More importantly, the snack survived the ideological divide, thriving in both democratic-capitalist West Berlin and communist East Berlin (indeed, one of the competitors with Curry 36 for best currywurst is the longstanding Konnopke's Imbiss in our adopted neighborhood of Prenzlaur Berg - which was in East Berlin). Now that communism has collapsed and the city has been unified for twenty-years, currywurst is still all the rage in ALL of Berlin. Connections, connections!

Can you pass the ketchup?

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