It's all about the sausage - what happens to Volkswagen spare part 199 398 500 A?
After almost five decades of production, the VW spare part with the number 199 399 500 A is apparently facing extinction in its current form. Don't know the part? "Kommste vonne Schicht, wat schönret gibt et nich nicht als wie...." Herbert Grönemeyer once sang. Well, can you guess? Sure, it's about the currywurst, in this case the original one from the Volkswagen factory, which to my knowledge is the only currywurst with a real part number.
It was recently reported in the daily press that the VW plant canteens want to take account of an actual or suspected trend towards vegetarian and vegan food and - alongside other meat products - no longer want to offer the legendary sausage in the Wolfsburg canteen. However, there will be a vegan alternative.
According to the FAZ newspaper on August 10, 2021, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who is said to have visited the chip shops when necessary during his time in office, commented on the memorable event as follows "In my time as Chairman of the Supervisory Board at VW, this would not have happened" and justified it as follows: "Currywurst with chips is the power bar of the skilled worker in production. It should stay that way". This is supported not least by the fact that around seven million units of VW Currywurst were produced in 2019 alone.
So can the cult sausage still be saved and how could this be achieved? As a lover of automotive cultural assets, the historical license plate (in Germany: so-called "H-approval") immediately comes to mind - but then you would have to be able to apply the registration regulations to a sausage in the same way...
After all, the vegan replacement solution looks to the classic car enthusiast like a vintage petrol engine converted to electric drive ...
It should be possible to save the classic currywurst. So let's all think hard about saving this popular spare part. After all, it's all about the sausage!
