The dish — pork sausage sprinkled with curry powder and doused in spicy tomato ketchup — has grown from its humble roots in Berlin’s western Charlottenburg district to become a beloved fixture at fast food stands and workplace cafeterias across the country.

Some 800,000 currywursts are thought to be eaten each year, most from a flimsy paper plate with the help of a wooden or plastic fork.

With German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and singer Madonna among high-profile currywurst fans, opening a museum devoted to the ubiquitous snack was a no-brainer, said Brigit Breloh, who will head the planned institution.

"Currywurst is simply cool," gushed Breloh, who expects the museum to attract 350,000 sausage-loving visitors annually once it opens at a site in downtown Berlin early next year.

The museum will trace the history of currywurst from its invention in 1949 by snack stand owner Herta Heuwer through the arrival of the competing Turkish doener in the early 1970s up to the present day.

Its opening will come amid something of a renaissance for the popular snack, which only recently returned to the exclusive diplomatic quarter around the German capital’s Brandenburg Gate.