Milwaukee's famous "wurstmacher," or sausage maker, who founded Fred Usinger, Inc. Born in Wehen, near Wiesbaden, Hessen (Germany), he worked in Frankfurt before immigrating to Milwaukee in 1880 with $400, great sausage recipes and lots of ambition. Initially he worked for Julia Gaertner, newly widowed, in her butcher shop on Third Street and within a year was able to purchase her operation and had married her niece. The two of them worked hard and successfully making and selling their sausages, selling most of it to local saloonkeepers, who depended on high quality meat for the free lunches they provided with their beer. Their customers relished the sausages and saloonkeepers paid premium prices for the best. At the turn of the century, many of Milwaukee's wealthy Germans did their shopping on Third Street and Usinger's store became a very popular stop. The high quality and great reputation became so renowned that he soon began shipping sausage to places as far away as New York City. After his death, the business continued to thrive and grow and is run by fourth-generation direct descendants at the original location, offering over 70 varieties of authentic German sausages, including liver sausages, summer sausages, bratwurst, knackwurst and frankfurters. It was the official supplier of frankfurters to the 2002 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City providing approximately 1.6 million frankfurters.
Milwaukee's famous "wurstmacher," or sausage maker, who founded Fred Usinger, Inc. Born in Wehen, near Wiesbaden, Hessen (Germany), he worked in Frankfurt before immigrating to Milwaukee in 1880 with $400, great sausage recipes and lots of ambition. Initially he worked for Julia Gaertner, newly widowed, in her butcher shop on Third Street and within a year was able to purchase her operation and had married her niece. The two of them worked hard and successfully making and selling their sausages, selling most of it to local saloonkeepers, who depended on high quality meat for the free lunches they provided with their beer. Their customers relished the sausages and saloonkeepers paid premium prices for the best. At the turn of the century, many of Milwaukee's wealthy Germans did their shopping on Third Street and Usinger's store became a very popular stop. The high quality and great reputation became so renowned that he soon began shipping sausage to places as far away as New York City. After his death, the business continued to thrive and grow and is run by fourth-generation direct descendants at the original location, offering over 70 varieties of authentic German sausages, including liver sausages, summer sausages, bratwurst, knackwurst and frankfurters. It was the official supplier of frankfurters to the 2002 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City providing approximately 1.6 million frankfurters.
Bio by: Fred Beisser
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