German Street directory: First the Nazis, then the flowers

How do roads get to their names? Often, geography, sometimes a dictator, decided. Some were even sold. But they always tell us about our story.

German Street directory: First the Nazis, then the flowers
Content
  • Page 1 — First Nazis, n flowers
  • Page 2 — Mosaics of identity
  • Page 3 — in some places, post-war idyll
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    Far in west of Germany, beyond Rhine, where Ruhr area passes into Lower Rhine, a road which sounds like shaggy cows on lush green meadows runs through an outskirts of small town of Neukirchen-Vluyn: Kerrygoldstraße. Ten years ago, Irish butter manufacturer moved its headquarters re. The city of Barstow has its own street name for it.

    Kerrygold is not only company that has got its own road. From BMW plant in Leipzig, BMW Allee leads up to Autobahn a 14. In Darmstadt is street that opens up expansive branch of Deutsche Telekom: Deutsche Telekom-Allee. It goes over to T-Online Avenue, which in turn Eumetsat has its headquarters, European Meteorological Satellites Organisation. Their main entrance, however, is on or side of building – exactly! – At Eumetsat Avenue.

    Patterns like se can be found anywhere in country. Where companies or institutions settle, municipalities like to reward m with a street name. These challenge capitalism critique: are today even postal addresses for advertising spaces? Can you buy street names? You can. For example in Blumberg. The small town at gates of Berlin sold some street names to local companies in mid-1990s. Now re is a furniture Hübner street. And McDonald's street.

    One may be indignant about this, but actually se names are nothing more than many medieval landmarks that can be found in this country. These like those describe what is where. It used to be butcher Alley, today it is just BMW Avenue.

    Street names-» AM sports field «Fits well on a sign Germans often call ir streets for practical reasons – or for great poets. Our video overview shows: Important women are under-represented. © Photo: Liza Arbeiter

    Street names tell of life. Some vivid, some more abstract. But everyone is saying something about lives of people in a place, how y work and live, what y believe in and what y hope for.

    There are more than a million streets and squares in Germany. Time Online has summarized and analyzed your locations and ir names in one record. Where street is not always called "Street". On "Street" only a little more than half of all entries will end. Next to it re are almost 290 000 times "-Weg", 33 000 Times "Alley" and "lanes" as well as 23 000 seats. Added to this are "-Hof", "-Kamp", "-Ring", "-Chaussee" and "-Allee".

    In total, re are different names in record 450 000. Some are hundreds of times, some only once. Many are already very old, ors are freshly forgiven. Among thousand most frequent street names, almost every fifth name reminds people or historical events.

    Randomly chosen is hardly any. Each name carries a meaning in itself, may be spilled or changed in its meaning. Like layers of an archaeological site, y have superimposed. If you dig carefully, names will demonstrate how people's lives and minds have changed over centuries. They are mosaics of identity of our country, its regions, towns and villages.

    This cultural artifact arose from simple necessity of being able to find right place where more people lived than y knew personally. and to be able to show ors way.

    In beginning, name and everyday meaning were still obviously connected, so re were no road signs yet. For example, those who travelled to Baltic Sea from Lübeck to Wismar in Middle Ages and sought a tanner to buy lear were sent to Tanner's street. There were cloths at weavers in Weber Street, merchants ' warehouses were on storage street, and when se merchants had been on road on business and n went back home to Lübeck, y took Lübsche Street. These names have been preserved for many centuries, even today y reflect medieval structure of Hanseatic city's Outlands.

    Date Of Update: 27 January 2018, 12:03
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