Five Crazy Sausage Facts You (Probably) Don’t Know

Sizzling sausage facts from the archives of history

A Russian World War I poster depicting a German soldier in the form of a sausage by Aleksandrs Apsītis, 1914 (Wikimedia Commons)

When it comes to history, teachers have a habit of returning to the same themes again and again, with monarchs, revolutions, and international conflicts forming the backbone of most classes.

But sometimes, it’s fun to ramp up the whacky factor and look at something more unusual — like sausages, for instance.

Though this may seem like a mundane topic, there are plenty of fascinating sausage facts that will probably take you by surprise.

1. A Businessman Murdered His Wife and Used a Sausage Vat to Hide the Evidence

An illustration of Adolph Luetgert by an unknown artist, 1897 (Wikimedia Commons)

Born in Germany in 1845, Adolph Luetgert emigrated to America as a young man and started a sausage-manufacturing company in Chicago. He was an ambitious, hardworking man who earned himself an impressive nickname: the Sausage King.

However, following the economic depression in 1896, Luetgert’s business struggled financially. Worse still, his marriage was in a bad place, for Luetgert often quarreled with his wife Louise…