It's like they took a word already from German ("wiener" as in hot dog) and then broke it while trying to make it more German, or something.
I had exactly the same concerns as you. My brain was very confused by this name and I was wondering if I got something wrong.
Turns out it's just an American making fake-German. Huh. So this is what it feels like....
It's a better job than a lot of fake German words by Americans. But it's still not quite right to me.
Ok, so there is a company in Chicago named Vienna Beef, started by immigrants from Wien in the 1800s who made sausages using recipes they brought with them. In the 1900s they started making hot dogs as well, but high quality ones. You see, the hot dog in America has a reputation as being a pretty low quality meat product. There are now a number of companies that make quality products, Vienna Beef being one.
In a stroke of genius, Vienna Beef also sells neon signs of their logo to the roadside shops that will sell you a ready to eat hot dog, especially ones that do it “Chicago style”. It’s very Americana, and you generally see it in the middle of America, including Nebraska. So a lot of Americans have a word association with Vienna and a good hot dog. That’s really the only connection :)
"Der Viener Schlinger".
So ... "Der" is german, we can translate this into "The".
"Schlinger" is a strange word; there is Schlinge in german, which could be translated as loop, snare or, better, a sling. You can see how similar sling is to Schling or vice versa here. To sling ... may also be herumschlingen, a snake may have a similar movement like that; curvy movement aka not linear or so. Makes sense for a sling that throws stuff about, see the slingshot channel or Tod's Workshop. So far this is a bit strange, but not totally strange.
But next comes ... "Viener". This is VERY strange. Where does this word originate? My first impression was it was from Vienna, a city; the german name for the city is "Wien", and if you replace the V here with a W, then it would be "Wiener" (which in english would be viennese, but in local wording). So when I first read the three words, I thought this originated from Vienna ... but that makes no sense. It's from the USA. So Viener must mean something else. But then why it is "Schlinger" rather than "slinger" or sling"? And why the name "Der"? I mean that only makes sense for a german word. Now I am very confused.
I also don't recall any meat cannon as a tradition in central Europe either, so that makes no sense either. Who coined that word here, anyway?