BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) was first recognised as a cattle disease in Britain in the mid-1980s. Thereafter, concerns began to be expressed regarding the possible transmission of this rare but incurable brain disease (resembling ”scrapie” in sheep, first observed in British sheep in the 1720s) to humans in the form of a ”new variant” of Creuzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) through the consumption of beef from infected cattle. So far nvCJD has been ”diagnosed” as the cause of death of 29 individuals (with doubts in some cases). The paper is concerned with the German response to the ”Mad Cow crisis”, which played a major role in the European Commission decision to ban the export of cattle products from Britain. It is suggested that there is a link between the (”West”) German response to BSE and the removal of the ”security” the ”Iron Curtain” provided. Further, the particular German reaction is accounted for by the ”volatility” of public opinion, the federal structure of government and the prominence of sausage (Wurst) in the local diet.
