Rolf Babiel

Rolf Babiel's grave in the forest cemetery in Hoyerswerda

Rolf Babiel (born June 24, 1952 in Hoyerswerda ; † October 21, 2009 in New York , United States ) was a German-American restaurateur . He was also known as the "sausage king of New York".

Life

Rolf Babiel grew up with nine siblings in Hoyerswerda , attended school there and later worked as a machinist in the opencast mine near Knappenrode . On August 13, 1975, at the age of 23, he officially moved from the GDR to West Berlin . He had already tried twice before to flee to the west via the former Czechoslovakia . In West Berlin, he initially delivered milk at night. In 1981 he finally emigrated to the United States , bought a wheeled stall and started selling sausages in New York . He set up this stand, which was the first with typical German home cooking in the metropolis, at the corner of Fifth Avenue at 54th opposite the Lufthansa building. He deliberately chose this location because he assumed that his compatriots would most likely have an appetite for his sausages. "I thought they'd want to eat something other than those sloppy hot dogs," he said later. Since he didn't speak English very well at that time, he got the telephone directory at Lufthansa headquarters and called the people there directly to offer them his sausages.

Hello Berlin restaurant on 10th Avenue in New York

Babiel and his “Hallo Berlin” stand became famous. Not only Germans, but also Americans and, above all, Japanese tourists stood in line at his stand, which was open for three hours a day. Celebrities from many countries were photographed with him at his stand. From the late 1990s he and his brother Wolfgang also ran two German beer garden restaurants in Manhattan and one in Conklin . Among other things, he sold ten types of sausage which he obtained from a German butcher in Queens . He imported red cabbage , sauerkraut and fried potatoes directly from Germany . In addition to the “Hoyerswerdaer Schnitzel”, “Königsberger Klopsen” and the “Kasseler ribs”, his “German Soul Food” was a specialty on the menu. It was a mixture of bratwurst and white sausage with sauerkraut and ketchup.

In 2002, Kerstin Aldenhoff shot the documentary Der Bratwurstkönig von New York about Babiel . In 2005, the native of Saxony received the Vendy Prize. He was therefore considered the best street food seller in New York and prevailed against 10,000 competitors.

Rolf Babiel was married and had two sons. He died at the Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan at the age of 57 . His grave is in the forest cemetery in Hoyerswerda.

Web links

• Website of the “Hallo-Berlin” restaurant
• Hoyerswerda legend already in his lifetime , obituary of the Lausitzer Rundschau , November 20, 2009

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sun. 10/25 Death Notices , New York Daily News , October 25, 2009
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} "... but she's still laughing" , Lausitzer Rundschau, September 11, 2003
3. ↑ King of the Carts: Rolf Babiel Wins Vendys ( Memento of the original from April 27, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Jake Dobkin, Food, November 11, 2005