Who Invented the Hot Dog?

December 17, 2015

It is not entirely clear who invented the hot dog Americans love today, but historians have some theories.
 
Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany is traditionally accepted as the 1487 birthplace of the frankfurter. However, some people dispute this claim, arguing that Johann Georghehner, a butcher from Coburg, Germany, invented a sausage called the “dachshund” or “little dog” in the late 1600s and traveled to Frankfurt to promote it. Vienna also claims to be the place where the hot dog was invented. Vienna is known to Austrians as Wien, which is linked to the term “wiener.”
 
It is likely that hot dogs enjoyed in North America are based on a common form of sausage eaten throughout Europe that was brought here by butchers from several countries.
 
It is unclear who began serving hot dogs with rolls. One story is that a German immigrant sold them with milk rolls and sauerkraut from a push cart in New York in the 1860s. Charles Feltman, a German butcher, opened the first hot dog stand on Coney Island in 1871 and sold dachshund sausages in milk rolls.
 
Sausages began to be served at baseball parks in 1893. It is believed that a St. Louis bar owner, Chris Von de Ahe, who owned the St. Louis Browns baseball team, started the tradition.

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