History LEO sausage stand

“Back then, the sausage stand was parked in front of the Auge Gottes pharmacy. Until about 30 years ago, there were different permits for daytime and nighttime operation.

In 1952, our vendor, Fritz Wilfing, was hired, and he worked six nights a week for 25 years. Our Fritz became a true Viennese character. During those decades, and even today, many prominent figures from culture, media, politics, business, and science have come to our sausage stand.

Our most famous guest was the then-Chancellor of Austria, Dr. Bruno Kreisky, who wrote in our vendor Fritz’s guestbook: ‘The hot sausage at the sausage stand tastes better now than it did hours ago at the banquet.’

Of course, this isn’t the same stand as in 1928 – it’s already the fourth generation and was rebuilt in 1997 according to the latest standards.

In 1987, we moved our stand to the island opposite, by the taxi stand in front of what is now the Cafe Blau-Stern.

Our Fritz was with us for 25 years.” He was employed from Tuesday to Sunday, from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. Monday was his day off.

He didn’t really want anyone else working for him; he didn’t want anyone revealing his hand. He had two weeks of vacation once a year, because back in 1953, when he started, a 48-hour work week and just two weeks of vacation per year were the norm. Of course, this has changed over the years. Today, it’s at least five weeks of vacation, and we have a 40-hour work week.

Our Fritz was a unique character. He always greeted his guests with, “Servus, my friend!” He was also a fanatical football supporter, and as a resident of Döbling, naturally a Vienna supporter. His customers and friends would ask him about the football scores in the evenings and at night, and they would enjoy discussing them together.

When students were short of money, they would put their accounts on Fritz’s books. On the first of the next month, when the students received their money from home, they would gladly pay back the debts with a small surcharge. Once, a customer came to him and Fritz asked him for a large sum of money for a Burenwurst (a type of sausage) and explained that he was now a well-paid CEO, so this amount was nothing to him. He would never forget that as a student, when he was hungry, he could simply go into debt.

The former Chancellor, Dr. Kreisky, also often came to eat Burenwurst and wrote in his guestbook that the sausage at the sausage stand tasted better than the banquet meal he had enjoyed beforehand. The first time Kreisky came, the detective asked how much he would pay, and Fritz replied, “100 Austrian schillings.” The detective then asked Fritz if he had gone mad, and Fritz replied that he was just a poor servant and this was the great Chancellor. Dr. Kreisky overheard this, laughed heartily, and from that time on, he received 100 schillings. (Whether it was true, I don’t know, but that’s how Fritz told it to me.)