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Germans Take Pride in the Wurst
Thuringian Rostbratwurst, which is usually served on a small bun, has been produced and sold in Weimar and other cities for centuries.
(Photos By Craig Whitlock -- The Washington Post)
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"The first question most visitors always ask about our museum is 'Why?' " said Uwe Keith, president of the museum's board. "It's just that Thuringian Rostbratwurst is such a part of life here."
For the uninitiated, Thuringian bratwurst is distinguished from the other 41 varieties of German bratwurst mainly by its distinctive spices (marjoram, garlic, sometimes a bit of lemon) and its fat content (only 25 percent, compared with up to 60 percent for greasier cousins). It's also supposed to be cooked and eaten within 24 hours after it is stuffed in the casing.
The sausage is generally between six to seven inches long and served on a very small crusty bread roll, the main purpose of which is to keep your fingers off the meat.
It is traditionally served with mustard, though barbarians sometimes top it with ketchup. Thuringian bratwurst must be roasted or grilled. To fry it is a sin.
Traditionally, entire Thuringian villages would gather to slaughter hogs and make wurst as a communal activity, said Thomas Maeuer, a member of the museum's board.
Getting drunk on schnapps or beer was all part of the fun. "Eating bratwurst was even a bigger family festivity than having the Sunday roast," he said.
Erzmann, the historian, said he discovered the bratwurst purity document in 2000. But its existence was kept largely under wraps until this fall, when it was publicized in a book and by the bratwurst museum.
The original decree will remain in a bound set of documents in the Weimar city archives. Erzmann guessed that no one had cracked the book in at least a century. "I would have missed it, too, had I not gone through it line by line to translate into modern German," he said.
Around the same time, Erzmann unearthed another document that threatens to roil the beer vs. bratwurst debate even further. It is a beer purity law from the city of Weissensee, and while it's not entirely clear when it was written, he said it dates to 1434 -- just two years after the Weimar bratwurst regulations.
Although Erzmann maintains his scholarly objectivity, he gave a hint about his personal feelings on which came first.
"We have an old saying in Thuringia," he said. "Rain or shine, we stuff our faces with bratwurst."
