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The sausage is the archetype of German cuisine – but the traditional art of bratwurst could soon be a thing of the past.
In all of Germany, butchers have closed their shops at an alarming rate. The number of butcher shops operating nationwide has almost halved in the last two decades, from 21,160 in 1998 to just under 12,000 in 2018, according to the German Butcher's Association (DFV).
The trend is particularly pronounced in Berlin, where only 108 independent butcher shops serve the 3.7 million inhabitants of the city. The difference is significant compared to the central state of Thuringia, which counts nearly 400 companies for a population of 2.15 million inhabitants, or in the state of Bavaria, in the south of countries, where nearly 3,300 companies serve 13 million people.
Sales are up, interest is down
The closures do not seem to be related to financial difficulties. According to the DFV, Germans are still enthusiastic buyers of traditionally prepared meat products. Average annual sales per business have increased by more than 60% over the past two decades, exceeding 1.4 million euros (1.57 million USD) in 2018.
But if demand exists, why are German butchers closing? According to Jörg Litgau, one of Berlin's last butchers, the answer is simple: work has simply lost its appeal to the younger generation. "This job is hard work," he says. "Nobody wants to do it anymore."
Litgau has been at the helm of his business in Berlin's Friedrichshain district since 1995. A fifth-generation butcher, he begins his mornings at 4:30 am in the production area behind his shop. There, he spends at least 14 hours a day preparing meat products, using family recipes for sausages and seasonings.
"We make our own seasoning mixes," he says. "Some stores use pre-made seasonings in a package. But you will not find that here.
In a small storefront on a quiet street, the fruits of his work are exhibited: expertly sliced cuts of beef; small pork sausages called Pfefferbeisser, tinged with bright red from the addition of chilli powder; and long cylinders of seasoned burnished liver.
"My parents did this job and my grandparents did it," he says. "My grandparents from my mother opened their store there in 1934."
But as no parent or apprentice has taken over, Litgau does not expect the family tradition to continue after retirement.
"I recruited a lot of trainees over the years," he says. "But I do not do it anymore. They are not prepared for this work – nor are they interested in it. They do not want jobs that require so much time and physical work. "
Internships in decline
This generational trend is not unique to the German capital. According to recent estimates, two-thirds of the country's butchers are over 50 – and the numbers to replace them are simply not there.
Nationally, the number of enrollments in butcher programs – which take place over a three-year period combining practical experience and technical instruction in the clbadroom – has declined considerably. While there were more than 10,000 butchers apprentices in 1999, that number dropped to just over 3,000 in 2017, according to the DFV.
Registrations for butcher sales courses, which require a similar three-year training period, have further declined. While there were nearly 14,000 sales trainees in 1999, this number had dropped to less than 3,700 in 2017.
"We are not only fighting the lack of trained butchers, but also the store staff," said Klaus Gerlach, director of the Berlin Butchers' Guild.
As with store closures, the lack of trainees hit the capital particularly. In July 2018, the Berlin Butchers' Guild announced that it would end its teaching program for trainees at the city's only technical butchery university.
"When the technical college opened 24 years ago, we had 1,250 trainees from Berlin and [the surrounding state of] Brandenburg, "says Gerlach. "Last year we only had 145."
Trainees in butchery and sales programs can continue to work in stores in Berlin during their internship, says Gerlach. But for the clbadroom component – in which they will learn to use modern machines and other best practices – they will have to travel 200 km southwest to a technical college in Leipzig.
A new approach
So what can be done to attract more trainees to the field? Gerlach says better wages and better working conditions are part of the answer. While trainees in Berlin earn a maximum monthly salary of about 700 euros ($ 785), a standard rate set by the local union, their counterparts in other parts of the country earn more than 1,000 euros ($ 1,120) . .
"We have to remember that these people are not just support workers," he says. "They are the future of our business."
But keeping traditional butcheries afloat may require more than a simple injection of funds. According to Hendrik Haase, a food activist and co-founder of the Berlin butcher Kumpel & Keule, the estate is in dire need of a redesign of public relations.
"People today are more informed," he says. "They have so many questions about food: is it good to eat meat? What are the effects on climate change? Where do the animals come from?
Being able to engage in constructive discussions on these topics, he says, can help preserve the traditions of butchery in a society that is shrinking more and more meat.
Create a discussion area
Haase, 35, is a communications consultant and professional designer. With the master butcher Jörg Förstera, 31, he opened the Kumpel & Keule in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin in 2015.
From the beginning, transparency was at the heart of their business model – not only in terms of the origins of their products, but also literally: Förstera and other members of the team cut meat and made sausages behind large picture windows, offering customers an interior look at the production side.
"People are fed up with scandals and supermarket meat," says Haase. "They want to spend their money on good food and look for that link from farm to table."
In the future, butchers will need to find ways to bring this kind of openness to their businesses. Social media, production workshops and other forms of public awareness not only attract clients, but also attract new trainees to the field. But if German butchers are not able to adapt, age-old traditions may be at stake.
"These recipes[pourlessaucissesou[forsausagesor[pourlessaucissesou[forsausagesorLeberkäse Meatloaf]usually not written in a book somewhere – they are in people's heads, "says Haase. "If they give up, we lose so much of our culinary heritage. We are losing all these traditions as they close their doors. "
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