Where would Germany be without the sausage? The wurst is omnipresent here from street festivals to Saturdays at the football, from Christmas markets to your average takeaway stand serving the slightly bizarre, currywurst (chopped up sausage with ketchup and curry powder!). If sausage disappeared from German lifestyle there would be a big empty section in the supermarket and a certain level of hysteria among the non-vegetarian/vegan section of the population i.e. most Germans and my husband! Apparently, there are around 1500 different types of sausage in Germany. That’s a lot of wurst!

Of course, the wurst has also made its way into the language and there are lots of great idioms/sayings that are sausage-related. As I have said before, idioms are a fun way to spice up your language skills and impress a local. Just make sure you learn them word for word, as one small mistake can mess up the whole thing. So, here goes with my top 5 wurst idioms and their rough translation:

1. Let’s start with my absolute favourite. Spiel nicht die beleidigte Leberwurst / Don’t play the insulted liver sausage. Basically, this can be used for anyone who’s in a bit of a huff, bent out of shape and sticking out their bottom lip because they feel they’ve been treated unfairly and now they’re playing the insulted liver sausage. No idea why this one has to be liver sausage (if anyone out there knows, please tell me).
2. Armes Würstchen / Poor little sausage If you know something about the German language, you might notice the suffix chen on the wurst here. Chen is used to form a diminutive, making the wurst small. So, if you call someone an Armes Würstchen / Poor little sausage you basically feel sorry for them because…..well let’s face it nobody wants to be or receive a small sausage, right?
3. Eine Extrawurst kriegen / To get an extra sausage On the other hand, if you are a lucky person, people will tell you, you get an extra sausage. This could be anything from getting extra helpings at dinner to getting a better bonus than your colleagues. Because the only thing better than sausage in Germany is of course, more sausage (and perhaps a beer to go with it).
4. Jetzt geht’s um die Wurst / It’s coming down to the sausage This is kind of like it’s coming down to the wire i.e. this is where it really counts. The final match of a tournament or the last 10 minutes of a tight game or the last exam that’s worth extra points. In the past, it was apparently common at village fairs that the prize for winning a contest was a sausage. It’s all coming down to the sausage now!

And to finish, as we finally start to come out of lockdown and see a faint light at the end of the dark covid-19 tunnel, Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei / Everything has an end, only the sausage has two. At some point, all things must come to an end. Apart from the sausage.

All this makes me wonder if other countries have similar idioms using their national dishes. Do the Spanish have idioms about paella or the Japanese about sushi?? Let me know if you’ve ever come across something similar or have other wurst idioms to add to my collection. Thanks for reading and as always, please subscribe (in the box on the right) if you would like to follow me and receive this content straight to your inbox.