German Names For Central European Towns
This article deals with the historic German language names of towns and cities in Central Europe.
Many place names in Central Europe, mostly in the former German Empire and Austria-Hungary, but now located in non-German-speaking countries, have traditionally had equivalents in the German language. Many of them have been used for centuries by the German presence in the area, while some others were simply German transliterations of local names or names invented in the 19th or 20th centuries.
The earlier was the case with towns inhabited by Germans since the early Middle Ages until the end of Second World War, for instance Breslau, Eger, Hermannstadt or Stettin. The latter was the case of, for instance, Polish towns annexed by Prussia or Austria after the Partitions of Poland, like Chodziesen, Jarotschin or Hohensalza or in annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In some cases, especially in Eastern Central Europe, towns or cities were inhabited by significant numbers of members of two or more ethnics groups, including Germans. As long as the places were part of Germany or Austria-Hungary, these German names were used invariably in German — and usually in English and most other languages too — while the local Slavic, Magyar, or Romanian inhabitants used their own names for the places in question.
After World War II, when the German population of this region was largely expelled, the German names gradually fell into disuse in German and other languages, especially for the minor towns. German names of major cities like Danzig, Königsberg or Breslau are still recognizable and frequently used in Germany (Danzig about half the time; Breslau somewhat less). In only a few cases, the use of the German name persists invariably, i.e. in the case of capital cities like Prague or Warsaw, which are almost exclusively referred to by their German names (Prag, Warschau), just as they have separate names in English and other languages.
Read more about German Names For Central European Towns: Relevant Countries
Famous quotes containing the words german, names, central, european and/or towns:
“Immanuel Kant lived with knowledge as with his lawfully wedded wife, slept with it in the same intellectual bed for forty years and begot an entire German race of philosophical systems.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“And even my sense of identity was wrapped in a namelessness often hard to penetrate, as we have just seen I think. And so on for all the other things which made merry with my senses. Yes, even then, when already all was fading, waves and particles, there could be no things but nameless things, no names but thingless names. I say that now, but after all what do I know now about then, now when the icy words hail down upon me, the icy meanings, and the world dies too, foully named.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“Et in Arcadia ego.
[I too am in Arcadia.]”
—Anonymous, Anonymous.
Tomb inscription, appearing in classical paintings by Guercino and Poussin, among others. The words probably mean that even the most ideal earthly lives are mortal. Arcadia, a mountainous region in the central Peloponnese, Greece, was the rustic abode of Pan, depicted in literature and art as a land of innocence and ease, and was the title of Sir Philip Sidney’s pastoral romance (1590)
“Americans want action for their money. They are fascinated by its self-reproducing qualities if it’s put to work.... Gold-hoarding goes against the American grain; it fits in better with European pessimism than with America’s traditional optimism.”
—Paula Nelson (b. 1945)
“The recent attempt to secure a charter from the State of North Dakota for a lottery company, the pending effort to obtain from the State of Louisiana a renewal of the charter of the Louisiana State Lottery, and the establishment of one or more lottery companies at Mexican towns near our border, have served the good purpose of calling public attention to an evil of vast proportions.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)