National dish

What is the national dish of Germany?

Germany has no official national dish. The one most often named is sauerbraten, a pot roast of beef marinated for days in wine or vinegar with spices, then braised and served with gravy and dumplings. Bratwurst, currywurst and pork knuckle with sauerkraut are also regularly cited, because German cooking is strongly regional and no single dish speaks for the whole country.

Updated 2026-10-124 min read

Does Germany have a national dish?

Not officially. No German law or government declaration names a national dish, and reference lists give several candidates rather than one. Wikipedia's list of national dishes names six for Germany:

The length of that list reflects how regional German food is. Bavaria has its Weißwurst, Hesse its Frankfurter Rippchen (a cured pork cutlet with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes), Saxony its own Sächsischer Sauerbraten, and currywurst belongs above all to Berlin, Hamburg and the Ruhr. Each region has a candidate, and none has been chosen for the whole country.

Sauerbraten: marinated pot roast, the one most often called the national dish.
Bratwurst: fried or grilled pork sausage.
Currywurst: sliced sausage in curry ketchup, born in Berlin.
Schweinshaxe: roast pork knuckle.
Eisbein with sauerkraut: pickled pork knuckle, a Berlin classic.
Döner kebab: Turkish-inspired street food that became a German staple.

Sauerbraten, the most cited candidate

Sauerbraten means "sour roast", from sauer (sour, pickled) and Braten (roast meat). A tough, inexpensive cut, usually beef rump or bottom round, is marinated for several days, anywhere from three days to around two weeks depending on the recipe, in red wine, vinegar or both, with water, herbs and spices. The long soak tenderises the meat before it is roasted or braised.

It is served with a thick gravy made from the cooking juices and, most often, potato dumplings (Kartoffelklöße), potato pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer) or Spätzle. Regional versions exist in Baden, Franconia, Thuringia, the Rhineland, Saarland, Silesia, Swabia and Saxony. In the Rhineland, raisins and sometimes sugar beet syrup sweeten the sour marinade, and some restaurants there still make it with horse meat.

Its origins are told through legends. One credits Julius Caesar, who is said to have sent wine-marinated beef to the Roman colony of Cologne; another credits Charlemagne in the 9th century. Neither is substantiated.

Bratwurst and sauerkraut

Sausage is the other answer Germans give. The country makes more than 1,500 types of Wurst, and rules on what may go into them go back to the 13th century: a market ordinance in Landshut in 1236 already required top-quality meat. Bratwurst, usually ground pork and spices, is among the most common.

In our bratwurst with sauerkraut recipe, 400 g of sauerkraut is cooked about 10 minutes with a sliced onion, a diced apple and caraway seeds. The sausages are browned on all sides in the cleared half of the pan, 300 ml of beer goes in, and everything simmers covered for 15 to 20 minutes. Berlin's version of the pairing is Eisbein, pickled pork knuckle served with sauerkraut and potatoes.

Currywurst, the Berlin contender

Currywurst has a precise birth certificate. Herta Heuwer created it in 1949 at a food stand in Charlottenburg, West Berlin, using ketchup or Worcestershire sauce and curry powder obtained from British soldiers, poured over grilled pork sausage. She patented her sauce as Chillup in 1951. The Deutsches Currywurst Museum estimated that around 800 million currywursts are eaten in Germany every year, 70 million of them in Berlin.

It caught on with the construction workers rebuilding the city, and at its height the stand sold 10,000 servings a week. It has stayed political too: by tradition, every candidate for mayor of Berlin is photographed at a currywurst stand.

Our currywurst recipe keeps the sauce smooth: grated onion is sweated and strained out, then tomato paste, ketchup, vinegar, sugar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce and curry powder simmer 10 minutes. The bratwurst is poached 8 minutes, fried until the skin blisters, cut into 2 cm pieces, covered with sauce and dusted with more curry powder. Fries or a bread roll go alongside.

Other dishes to know from Germany

Schnitzel is common on German menus, and the earliest known schnitzel-like recipe is German: slices of partridge pounded flat, coated in egg, flour and breadcrumbs and fried, in a Nuremberg cookbook of 1691. But the most famous schnitzel is Austrian. Wiener schnitzel is veal pounded to 4 mm, coated in flour, egg and loose breadcrumbs, and floated in clarified butter at 160 to 170 °C until the crust puffs away from the meat. Austrian law requires the name to mean veal; a pork version is sold as Schnitzel Wiener Art. For the Austrian side of the story, see the national dish of Austria.

You will find all three dishes, with ingredients and step-by-step methods, on our page about the food of Germany.

For the neighbouring kitchens, see our guide to Western European food.

The recipes

Questions people ask

What is Germany's most famous dish?

There is no single answer. Sauerbraten is the dish most often called the national dish, while bratwurst and currywurst are the best known street foods; currywurst alone is estimated at around 800 million servings a year.

Is Wiener schnitzel German or Austrian?

Austrian: Wiener means "from Vienna", and it is one of Austria's national dishes. It is widely eaten in Germany, but Austrian law requires the name to mean veal; pork versions are called Schnitzel Wiener Art.

What is served with sauerbraten?

A thick gravy from the roasting juices, with potato dumplings, potato pancakes or Spätzle.

Who invented currywurst?

Herta Heuwer, who first sold it at her food stand in Charlottenburg, West Berlin, in 1949.

Is döner kebab a German national dish?

It appears on lists of German national dishes because it became one of the country's most common street foods, but it is Turkish-inspired rather than traditionally German.

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