Volkswagen Sausage and the Enduring Appeal of Culinary Car-Industry Crossovers | Hacker News Reader

Volkswagen Sausage and the Enduring Appeal of Culinary Car-Industry Crossovers

atlasobscura.com

21 pointsCaptainZapp20 comments

> This was Volkswagen’s very own currywurst, with 30 employees turning out 18,000 sausages a day.

Historically, this has simply been a necessity for Volkswagen. The Volkswagen factory was build in the 30ies in a thinly populated area that was mainly chosen because it was next to the Mittelland canal. An entire city (Wolfsburg) was founded for the workers. The city's entire infrastructure had to be built from scratch [0], and of course this included farms and meat processing plants.

[0] https://img.sparknews.funkemedien.de/214521413/214521413_152...

I don't know details of the history...but in late 1930's Germany, signalling "we will feed you" might have been critical for attracting workers. Food insecurity had been pretty dire in Germany over much of the prior two decades.

> Food insecurity had been pretty dire in Germany over much of the prior two decades.

Not-so-fun fact: this is what worries me the most about the current political tendencies across the Western world. Historically, food insecurity has been the most common factor between regime changes, revolutions and other uprisings - and now we have been through about five years of rampant inflation (either direct or "hidden" behind shrink/skimpflation) with wage raises not even coming close to matching it, and many even centrist politicians don't care.

I wouldn't mind a re-roll on the upcoming American regime. Raise taxes on the wealthy and beef up programs that help the poor. Nobody should be rich enough to buy elections

I think you underestimate how likely that re-roll would be to turn up worse.

Honestly, it's about time. The US and UK/Commonwealth are the only countries whose constitution hasn't ever been updated to match reality in many hundreds of years other than maybe a few cosmetic patches. Everyone else has had their constitution, laws, customs, in some times even the very borders itself or real estate ownership turned over and rebooted from scratch, for some not just once but twice or more.

And that shows, not just in a society that has a wealth inequality not seen since landed gentry in the medieval ages, but also with the complete and utter breakdown of public trust in government itself and the shift towards ever more absurd populism. Or if you want something really small, the fact that elections in the US are still held on a Tuesday because Sunday was Mass Day and Monday was reserved for travel on horseback.

Be careful what you wish for. The wealthy white collar types who got rich perpetuating whatever the system is don't tend to fare well in those sorts of things. A lot of HN would wind up losing their heads or swinging from the overpass same as the French and Russian minor nobility.

^^^ This.

Most of HN is affected by layoffs and a bad market, yet at the end of the day, most of our material conditions are better than most of our peers both in white collar industries as well as the larger population.

Both when it comes to wealth and politics, I'd be on the side of those with the pitchforks anyway.

The key thing that today's oligarchs and elite-rich forgot to learn from history: at least some time in a year, the rain falling down on the plebs shouldn't be shit but gold. When the population feels like their personal / family wealth/status cannot be influenced by whatever they do or not do, bad things can happen - some gang up for a revolution, others disconnect from the system entirely and become some form of hermit or completely rely on government aid, with zero motivation to contribute to society.

Money helps but it can't reliably buy elections. The losing side in the 2024 Presidential election actually raised more campaign funding.

https://www.opensecrets.org/2024-presidential-race

I'm surprised. Which food insecurity? Right now?

Prior 2 decades to 1930, 1910-1930 were not a good time in Germany (nor really was after).

Isn't that also tale old as time? The word salary is believed to have come from either rationed salt or compensation for salt purchases issued to Roman soldiers, and free lunches were always present in every IT worker's dream office during 2000s-2010s.

Old as time? Roughly, though the intensity of the insecurity has varied greatly with period / location / social circumstances.

Opinions may vary on the IT workers' free meal benefits. My impression is that the richest firms added breakfast, and dinner, and laundry service - and were sometimes accused of hoping that employees would live in the office and work 20 hours a day.

FWIW, Wiktionary expresses doubt on that origin for "salary" - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salary Vague memory: It's a topic that an ancient historian could lecture on for a few hours...and still conclude "doubtful".

Interestingly they do not own the recipe for the Volkswagen ketchup and there was a big outrage amongst workers a few years ago when they changed suppliers and the ketchup tasted differently

[0] https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/currywurst-neuer-ketc...

I live near Wolfsburg and the Volkswagen Currywurst is readily available in some supermarkets around here. It's hands down the best Currywurst you can get. And it is really being produced by Volkswagen - in contrast to their also kinda famous ketchup which is nowadays produces by develey and just branded VW.

Also the article is a bit imprecise on the part of swapping it for a vegan alternative in the headquarters: that was only one of several canteens in the headquarters (Volkswagen Markenhaus).

The imprecision is something what I start to call the foreign-correspondent-culture-war-pipeline: Something happens in a country. Because of misunderstandings it becomes a minor topic in public discussion for two days or so. A foreign correspondent starts to write about, because it touches on a culture war topic in their own country. But because any foreign journalism have limited space for context and culture the article has a slightly distorted and abbreviated view. Because a lot of people a monolinguists and of course have little time, that English article becomes the authoritative source for the Anglosphere.

I somewhat did like the VW Currywurst the one time I was in Wolfsburg/Autostadt. But it was different from home - the Ruhr area. Sometimes we forget that even something simple as the Currywurst has regional differences. And then there is Berlin.

I live in San Francisco and, whenever I'm in the area of Glen Canyon Market, I make sure to pick up several Fiat chocolates there: they cost about a dollar a piece and are delicious. I had no idea they were related to the car company; I thought the name overlap was a coincidence. They are really really good, like drive 10 minutes out of your way to get some good. Especially the green ones.

I've eaten this sausage in the (a?) Wolfsburg factory cafeteria -- it's a pretty good sausage! I remember the VW devs I was working with telling me it was the "most-manufactured" part VW produces

There is a boom of luxury car-branded buildings (Mercedes-Benz Dubai..).

Branding is one of a few valuable assets those car companies have left.

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