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German and Austrian Culture and Words ( to run away but also having fun with it before )

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Yes, but there are some parts of German "Autobahnen" like of the "A 3" between Köln / Cologne and Frankfurt which are famous even for speed addicts in Japan. I had a rather "mad" driving instructor who told us he knew a Japanese manager who once wanted to drive a "Ferrari Testarossa" on this Autobahn up to its limit and these two madmen really did it. The Japanese manager rented the Ferrari and they changed the seats at the end of this A 3 's and drove back on the same A 3 "just for fun" at the highest possible speed of the "Ferrari Testarossa". The driving instructor told us not to do this on our own again because he himself thought later, this is a kind of madness because he drove for the first and the last time in his life really between 300 and 400 km/h on a really public street and he was sweating like never before, he said. But the Japanese manager found it "funny"! Must have been a descendant of a Japanese Samurai with a hidden longing for death, I think ...
 
Silent_Water said:
Yes, but there are some parts of German "Autobahnen" like of the "A 3" between Köln / Cologne and Frankfurt which are famous even for speed addicts in Japan. I had a rather "mad" driving instructor who told us he knew a Japanese manager who once wanted to drive a "Ferrari Testarossa" on this Autobahn up to its limit and these two madmen really did it. The Japanese manager rented the Ferrari and they changed the seats at the end of this A 3 's and drove back on the same A 3 "just for fun" at the highest possible speed of the "Ferrari Testarossa". The driving instructor told us not to do this on our own again because he himself thought later, this is a kind of madness because he drove for the first and the last time in his life really between 300 and 400 km/h on a really public street and he was sweating like never before, he said. But the Japanese manager found it "funny"! Must have been a descendant of a Japanese Samurai with a hidden longing for death, I think ...
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Crazy indeed! One gust of wind and they would become a kite! Remember Bernd Rosemeyer in 1938!
 
Hm, I do not know if something like this with Rosemeyer could often happen with a Ferrari Testarossa on a German Autobahn, because these Ferraris are very lowered car constructions and designed to be pressed down by the wind. Additionally, they are massively built and relatively "wide". I once was able to compare the width at a traffic light's stop and for me, one of them seemed to be as wide as a bus which was standing aside it at a traffic light stop. It is not so easy to find a parking place for this car because of its width. For example, look in this picture where the back mirrors are and how narrow the seats seem to be. At first sight, I thought this car's width is an optical illusion but it is really very "wide":

Ashampoo_Snap_2021.02.28_03h28m08s_001_.jpg

But to make overtaking maneuvers on a German Autobahn is nothing for people with "weak nerves" as this German-Turkish comedian is telling us here, who can also imitate a lot of dialects. He is first comparing the difference of driving in Switzerland and then in Germany. He says, Switzerland has a speed limit of 120 km/h and needs it because it is very small and slow compared to Germany. When "Germans" like him would be driving through Switzerland without speed limit, they would be after half an hour in Italy and asking: "Was this already Switzerland?"
In any case, after returning from Switzerland to Germany, he had always problems to adjust his style of driving again to the German Autobahnen. In minute 2:50, he starts to explain that he was driving "slowly" with only 200 km per hour on a 3-lane-Autobahn and in front of him, a German truck changed from its lane to his track in the middle. So, he looked into the back mirror, saw nothing behind him for 20 km behind, set the left blinker and "VROOOOOM", another German car was overtaking on the left lane with some hundred miles per hour more:


In Switzerland on the other hand, he claims to have seen a 3-lane-Autobahn with three convertible cars driving right aside with 120 km/h and the Swiss were all friendly talking with each other from one car to the other in their slow Swiss German. This would be regarded as a "sit-down-protest" by the Autobahn police in Germany, but Switzerland is a very friendly country.
 
I just stumbled again over interesting similarities between written English and German words but with completely different meanings.

You may know that "Bath" is in German "Bad" and when there is a German, Austrian or Swiss city or village which is or was famous for thermal springs, it will have the additional name "Bad" like in "Bad Kreuznach". Some are really famous, some are almost unknown:

Liste der Orte mit Namenszusatz „Bad“ – Wikipedia

de.wikipedia.org de.wikipedia.org

Very famous is "Baden-Baden" and the name is a bit strange because the double "Baden" was on the one hand used as distinction and difference to another city with the name Baden (-> plural of "Bath" and also because of the name of the "Margraviate of Baden" or the country etc.:

en.wikipedia.org

Baden-Baden - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

But in Bavaria and Austria, there are also cities and villages which are ending of "-ing" like "Ismaning" or an Austrian village which had the misfortune of a name being derived from the noble family of "von Vucckingen" (around 1070 in the Middle Ages).

This Austrian village aroused a lot of interest from English-speaking tourists which made trips into this village just to be photographed in front of the village's traffic & town signs with its name "Fucking".
Because these signs were stolen very often and rather expensive ... and this village's name was not intended to arouse so much interest in English-speaking countries, the council of the city decided in 2020 to change the name into "Fugging" ... but it was simply too late.

en.wikipedia.org

Fugging, Upper Austria - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

The most interesting etymological details for me were these "scientific developments":

There is now a beer in Austria with the name "Fucking Hell" and - only by the brewery - an intended connection to "Fucking".

Additional, there is now a "grotesque-satirical criminal story" and based on it even a movie with the name "Bad Fucking", which was very funny and broadcast via the German-Austrian-Swiss TV station "3sat". You can even find it right now here:

www.3sat.de

Bad Fucking

Im österreichischen Dorf Bad Fucking hat jeder ein schmutziges Geheimnis - Ehebruch, Korruption, Mord und Totschlag, für jeden ist was dabei. Veronika würde dem Wahnsinn gern entkommen.
www.3sat.de www.3sat.de

And "Pornhub" allowed all Austrian inhabitants of "Fucking" a "Premium-Access".

To live in "Fucking" or now "Fugging" must be a mixture of heaven and hell at the same time, I think.
But it is really good that it never really became "Bad Fucking", isn't it?
:eek::rolleyes:
 
"Unfortunately", there is much much more in many countries to be found:

en.wikipedia.org

Kissing, Bavaria - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

And I remember that some public computer systems in Germany (the ones of the state-run employment agencies) were so "censored" for some years that you could not find emploment advertising in some villages because of their names, for example "Farschweiler" ...
 
Silent_Water said:
"Unfortunately", there is much much more in many countries to be found:

en.wikipedia.org

Kissing, Bavaria - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

And I remember that some public computer systems in Germany (the ones of the state-run employment agencies) were so "censored" for some years that you could not find emploment advertising in some villages because of their names, for example "Farschweiler" ...
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People who live in the English town of Scunthorpe have a similar problem. And my German friend was very impressed by the town of Clitheroe
 
malins said:
what about the members of the Mösenlechner clan!?

German surnames are a bit weird anyway...

Dr. Wolfgang Würger ...Dr. Strangler,
Rechtsanwalt Heinz Mörder ... attorney Murderer,
politician Erwin Teufel ... Devil
etc.
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This isn't confined to German. There is a United States Senator with the surname Crapo (prounced cray.po, not crap.o, as an anchor had to say to correct a reporter). There are lots of people named "Turnipseed". Then there is the legendary western marshal "Wyatt Earp". When you are young these things may be a problem, but if you are in a business with a lot of competition, the name recognition may be advantageous. And there is a TV series called "Schitt's Creek".
 
Hm, there are even villages which are so "unfortunate" that they can never escape their name's "Karma", no matter what they try to do:

I remember a German regional TV serial, in which a random generator chose names of cities and villages in the German federal state of "Rheinland-Pfalz" (= "Rhineland-Palatinate") and an eloquent reporter was sent there the next day in order to make a report about all interesting topics in and around this location.

One day, the random generator chose "Schweisdorf" and the next day, the reporter asked the mayor of this village how this name came to this village because it sounds and looks not so "comfortable": The German word "Schweiß" means "sweat" and so it sounds like "Sweat-Village".

The mayor said: "Yes, it is not a really nice name, but the name before was even worse because the noble families in this region had here a big farm with pigs for their castles and the name before was "Schweinsdorf" (= "Pig's Village") until the "n" was "forgotten" in the name of the village until it became "Schweisdorf".

Then, the reporter answered: "Hrm, well, let's hope that no one in the future will forget the "w" in your current name."
The Mayor looked very unhappy because then, the name of the village would be "Scheisdorf" and this would sound like "Shit(ty)-Village". :eek: :facepalm:
 
malins said:
what about the members of the Mösenlechner clan!?

German surnames are a bit weird anyway...

Dr. Wolfgang Würger ...Dr. Strangler,
Rechtsanwalt Heinz Mörder ... attorney Murderer,
politician Erwin Teufel ... Devil
etc.
Click to expand...
In countries under Napoleontic rule, French administration had introduced for the first time a civil register. People had to have themselves compulsory enrolled on it. Some, either as an act of resistance against the practice, or as a joke, gave up a weird name.
But these people ignored the official character of the procedure, and soon found out they had to live under the name they had been registered, regardless how weird or stupid it sounded, since there was officially no way to change it anymore.
 
Oh yes, names sometimes really seem to develop a life on their own and when they become proverbs, their origin is sometimes lost in the darkness of history.
In Germany, you still hear sometimes old proverbs and sayings of which you understand the meaning immediately but you usually do not know any more how they "came into life".
In old or very old German cities, you can find names and proverbs like in no other or younger cities.
In the oldest German city "Trier" which was founded by the Romans (city name 2000 years ago: "Augusta Treverorum"), you can find "German" family names like in ancient Rome with endings of "-ius": (Am-)Brosius, Valerius etc.

en.wikipedia.org

Trier - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

At the same time, you can find in Trier names from the "Christianization" and the names show how religious and faithful their "name-holders" wanted to be, for example in the family name "Hassdenteufel"! (= "Hatethedevil"!)
Some very small streets or "alleyways" must have been very dark in the Middle Ages in this city and have very unusual names, which must have been used as warnings for foreigners like the "SiehumDich-Gasse" (= "LookAroundYou-AlleyWay")

And there are still proverbs in this city, you do not often hear in other German cities, like: "Jemandem ein X für ein U vormachen!" which means in Roman numbers to deceive someone by telling him this is a X (= 10) but it is in reality a "U" = V (= 5).

Or the German saying: "Das kommt mir Spanisch vor!" which means "This comes like Spanish for me!" This saying has its origin in the 30-years-war 1618-1648, when the Spanish troops fighting in Germany for the Catholic German emperor were said to be very sophisticated and "sneaky / underhand / treacherous" in their battles compared to all other enemy troops.

And in Trier, there is one of the oldest German newspapers with a very unusual sounding name in our days: "Der Trierische Volksfreund" (= "The People's Friend of the City of Trier").
 
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Not only place names in the dialect of my home region, which is partly very different from Standard German, there were words such as "Ficke". But it means quite harmlessly bag. My great-grandfather always said "Kumm har ich hob wos schienes in mäner Husenficke". Come here, I've got something nice in my pocket. A family in the neighboring village called Fikert has renamed itself, they are now called Fischer (Fisherman).
 
Well even remote places in history share this burden.
As William Dampier (a most incompetent bucaneer, but successful as self-promoter) wrote in his 'New Voyage around the World' in 1697 about the Galapagos islands:
"The Dildo-tree is a green prickly shrub that grows about 10 or 12 feet high, without either Leaf or Fruit. It is as big as a Man's Leg, from the root to the top, and it is full of sharp prickles, growing in thick rows frrom top to bottom."
 
Zungur said:
Well even remote places in history share this burden.
As William Dampier (a most incompetent bucaneer, but successful as self-promoter) wrote in his 'New Voyage around the World' in 1697 about the Galapagos islands:
"The Dildo-tree is a green prickly shrub that grows about 10 or 12 feet high, without either Leaf or Fruit. It is as big as a Man's Leg, from the root to the top, and it is full of sharp prickles, growing in thick rows frrom top to bottom."
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That's one hell of a dildo......
 
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