Which Berlin woman is commonly credited with inventing currywurst in 1949?

The Berlin woman commonly credited with inventing currywurst in 1949 was Herta Heuwer.

Heuwer ran a food kiosk in West Berlin and is said to have created the dish on September 4, 1949. Her version combined sausage with a sauce made from tomato-based ingredients, Worcestershire sauce or a similar seasoning, curry powder and other spices. The snack suited postwar Berlin, where inexpensive takeaway food was especially valuable during reconstruction.

Her stand was in Charlottenburg, and the dish became associated with Berlin’s street-food culture. At its height, her operation reportedly sold thousands of servings each week before she moved to a larger facility and later ran a restaurant.

The attribution is not entirely uncontested. Other stories place early currywurst in Hamburg or Duisburg, and food historians note that popular dishes often develop through several cooks’ experiments. Still, Heuwer is the standard answer for the Berlin origin story and the person most commonly credited with creating currywurst.