Old bratwurst restaurant is a medieval treasure in Germany

This is how the famous homemade sausages are made in the Wurstkuchl kitchen. — Photos: KARIN WILLEN/dpa

Ever since Andreas Meier saw the pleasure with which his son stayed home from school to make sauerkraut during lockdown, the future of this 14-year-old is all but set in stone.

The father heads a Regensburg institution, the Wirtshaus Wurstkuchel restaurant in Germany, and thinks a passion for artisanal traditions is the best reason for anyone to take over this heritage site of German cuisine once he retires.

In Regensburg’s historic city centre, there are a number of family-run businesses that specialise in handmade and sustainably produced food. They can be found in narrow alleyways between the medieval houses and chapels, where the past, present and future all mix.

While the medieval centres of most German cities were largely destroyed by air raids during World War II, Regensburg, less than two hours by train from Munich, has the country’s best-preserved town centre.

‘Six on Kraut’ – six sausages on a bed of sauerkraut – is German street food at its best.

Not all locals are happy about the arrival of modern buildings and business here. For some, the modern architecture of the new House of Bavarian History, which opened on the banks of the Danube in 2019, is a modern eyesore in the city’s historic old town.

But apart from this new building, change in the old town is limited. The Buersten Ernst brush manufactory has been able to hold onto its business for more than a century, making it the last shop of its kind in this city.

A few streets away, the start-up Thann Leder offers handmade and vegetable-tanned leather from organic cattle in their small workshop.

The weekly market at the cathedral with regional products is both a meeting place and a visitor magnet every Saturday. If locals don’t meet someone they know at the market, then probably in one of the many nearby cafes.

For example, there is Cafe Goldenes Kreuz on Haidplatz, which was already an inn in the 16th century. Or Cafe Prinzess, one of the first coffee houses in Germany, which served royalty and envoys of the Holy Roman Empire as early as the 17th century. Nowadays you can buy handmade chocolates there.

A few steps away, the Hutkoenig factory opposite the cathedral has been making hats by hand since 1875 – with strength, skill and hot steam.

“We make both traditional hats and more unusual creations,” explains milliner Andreas Nuslan. He is the fourth generation to work in the same place and also campaigns internationally for this almost extinct craft.

Why is it here of all places, at the northernmost point of the Danube and at the mouths of the Regen and Naab rivers, that the balancing act between the ages succeeds?

Maybe it’s because many have passed through here since time immemorial and, with a mixture of hard work, wilfulness and originality, find a place to stay. The bend in the River Danube where Regensburg is located was settled as early as the Stone Age. The Romans came, and some stayed. Bohemians joined them and mixed with those already there.

Meier heads the Wurstkuchl, the oldest bratwurst restaurant in the world.

When Meier’s ancestors bought the Wurstkuchl from the city treasurer in 1808, the small building at the old city wall was already 700 years old.

Between 1135 and 1146, it served as the construction office for the Stone Bridge, which is considered a masterwork of medieval bridge construction.

Then the crooked little house became a cook-shop for dock workers, and then also for the cathedral’s stonemasons. Work never ran out, as for a long time the port was an important trade centre for salt, among other things.

Today, tourists can follow the scent towards the “oldest bratwurst kitchen in the world.” as Meier is legally allowed to call his business.

The main product has not changed for centuries: fresh, homemade pork sausages, cooked over an open charcoal grill with home-fermented sauerkraut and homemade sweet mustard. A larger restaurant has been added right next door in the historic Salzstadel warehouse, which also houses the World Heritage Visitor Centre.

Time does not stand still in Regensburg either, and many a trend has come to stay and eventually become part of everyday life. The proportion of vegetables and salad, for example, has been increased by Meier to meet demand.

However nothing has changed with his traditional “Six on Kraut” dish – six sausages on top of a bed of sauerkraut. – dpa

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