Germany's unintentionally hilarious place names draw tourists and giggles
A light-hearted tour of the German towns and streets whose names cause English speakers to pause, photograph road signs and occasionally plan entire road trips around them.
Germany rarely tops lists of nations known for their sense of humour, yet its map is dotted with place names that stop English-speaking travellers in their tracks. A new roundup highlights ten spots where the local toponymy clashes spectacularly with English slang, turning ordinary villages into unexpected tourist magnets.
The phenomenon spans the country, from the Bavarian Alps to the North Sea coast. Visitors routinely detour to photograph themselves beneath signs for Wankum, a hamlet near the Dutch border, or pose beside the Wankbahn cable car that ferries hikers up Mount Wank at 1,780 metres. Locals pronounce the peak closer to "vunk", but the Anglophone joke has proven durable enough to sustain a steady flow of selfie-takers.
The heavy hitters
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the municipality of Titz leans into the absurdity. One of its districts is officially named Spiel, German for "game", meaning addresses in the area read "Titz Spiel". Nearby Wankum sits just off the A40 autobahn, its welcome sign a regular backdrop for British and American tourists. The band Sleaford Mods even tweeted a photo of the sign in 2021, amplifying the gag.
Further north, Wangerland on the North Sea coast pairs its eyebrow-raising name with a coat of arms featuring a topless mermaid. Settlements here date back to the 2nd century BC, long before English acquired its current slang meanings. Bad Kissingen, a historic spa town in Lower Franconia founded in 801, escapes the worst of the teasing, though its name still raises smiles. It once hosted the Chinese Olympic football team before the 2008 Beijing Games.
Lost in translation
Some names only become funny once you translate them. The Bavarian village of Pups, pronounced like "poops", literally means "farts". Etymologists trace it to a Roman settler named Pupis, but German grammar means a resident would be a "Pupser" (farter). In Thuringia, Drogen ("drugs") has resorted to mounting its road signs two metres high to deter souvenir hunters. Linsengericht in Hessen offers a wholesome alternative: its name translates to "lentil dish", a nod to the area's historic lentil fields. Kotzen sounds like the German verb for vomiting, but actually derives from a Slavic root meaning "wisps of hair".
Pronunciation saves the day
Not every entry is a village. Fahrtgasse is a major shopping street in Heidelberg, home to Germany's oldest university. It runs near the River Neckar and the city's main public swimming pool. German speakers pronounce "Fahrt" (journey) with a distinct vowel that neutralises the English reading, but the street sign still catches the eye of every Anglophone passer-by.
For all the linguistic collisions, the joke is almost always one-sided. Locals carry on with daily life in places named centuries before English slang existed. Yet the steady pilgrimage of tourists seeking a quick laugh, and a photograph, suggests Germany's unintentional comedy map will keep drawing visitors for years to come. If you enjoy these linguistic quirks, our German word of the day series explores more of the language's idiosyncrasies.
