NewsGerhard Schröder angry about the end of the VW...

Gerhard Schröder angry about the end of the VW currywurst

At Volkswagen it’s – again – about the sausage. A prominent ex-supervisory board does not like the latest plans at all.

Wolfsburg / Hanover – Gerhard Schröder is known as a friend of hearty fare, when he was campaigning he used to want “a bottle of beer”.

Now the former Federal Chancellor (77) feels compelled to publicly affirm his love for currywurst – because of a veggie offensive of “his” old company Volkswagen, which he co-controlled for a long time during his time as Prime Minister.

“If I were still on the board of #VW, there would have been no such thing,” grumbled Schröder on the online platform LinkedIn. As a former representative of the state of Lower Saxony – the second most important shareholder – in the largest German company, he is annoyed about the abolition of the famous VW currywurst in a works canteen. “Vegetarian nutrition is good, I do it myself in phases,” says Schröder. “But basically no currywurst? No!”

It remains to be seen whether the statements are meant completely seriously. The former SPD Chancellor, however, raised the question of whether an end to the grilled meat was really in the interests of the employees: “Currywurst with French fries is one of the power bars of the skilled worker in production. It should stay that way. ”In any case, the response to the prominent plea is considerable, after the canteen plans had already changed the network at the beginning of the week.

What happened? There can be no talk of a total abolition of the currywurst in Europe’s largest car company. VW had declared internally that the company restaurant in the branded high-rise at the headquarters should be meat-free after the company holiday at the end of August. Many colleagues wanted vegetarian and vegan alternatives. Most recently there were around 7 million curry sausages from the VW butcher shop in the pre-Corona year 2019, plus more than 550 tons of ketchup.

CEO Herbert Diess used the excitement about the sausage to present the work of head restaurateur Nils Potthast on LinkedIn. “Less meat, more vegetables, better ingredients – an immense progress, much more contemporary,” said Diess. “Good food is important, it is crucial for the health, the mood and thus also for the productivity of the employees.” And: “Our currywurst is now also vegan.”

The expansion of meat-free dishes has so far been thought of as an additional offer at VW, and some company restaurants have also had vegetarian and vegan options on the menu for a long time. At the same time, the currywurst continues to be served in many places – not just a few meters from the fine canteen, on the other side of the street in Wolfsburg.

Schröder underlined: In Hanover as in Berlin there are “excellent curry sausages”. “I don’t want to do without that, and I think: Lots of others don’t want that in their company canteens either.” He added the hashtag #rettetdieCurrywurst. The former Chancellor, Lower Saxony’s head of government from 1990 to 1998, is followed by a good 64,000 users on LinkedIn. Almost 2200 left a comment by Wednesday afternoon. VW HR manager Gunnar Kilian de-escalated: “Dear Gerhard, please don’t worry: The #Volkswagen currywurst stays.”

It has been known since the 1990s that Schröder has a preference for grilled food. In 2002, as Chancellor, he inaugurated a US president into the local food culture: he ordered currywurst and apple strudel for George W. Bush at Pariser Platz in Berlin. According to a restaurant manager, the German showed more appetite than his American guest – it was probably due to his jet lag.

How he lives, lives and eats today can be seen in part on the Instagram channel of Schröder’s fifth wife, Soyeon Schröder-Kim. There she shares recipes of Korean dishes or pictures of her husband at the stove. The dishes with lots of vegetables and fish are a welcome change for him, said Schröder-Kim 2020. And explained: “My husband used to not only eat currywurst.”

According to a YouGov survey, 21 percent of Germans would approve of company canteens only going for meat-free food. 68 percent would reject this, 10 percent did not provide any information. At VW, the increase in the vegetarian-vegan offer is not just a nutritional or taste-related issue.

Less meat consumption also helps the environment. So Diess let it be known that he sees the climate or animal rights debate anchored in the food: “Our star chef wants to do without meat from factory farming by 2025 – absolutely right and important!”

The target date, which is still a long way off, did not, of course, please all followers. “Want to be a pioneer and then only give up meat from factory farming in 4 years?” Another wrote: “I am absolutely in favor of not eating meat from factory farming until 2025 (!), But rather first. That would be a great contribution to health and climate protection! ”Dpa

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