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Tue 15 Jun, 2004 10:04 am
Edit: Moderator: Moved from Australia to Europe
F*cking villagers vote against name change
Residents of an Austrian village called F*cking, have voted against changing the name. The 150 or so people who live in the village debated the issue after roadsigns kept being stolen - many by British tourists.
Spokesman Siegfried Hoeppl, said: "Everyone here knows what it means in English, but for us F*cking is F*cking - and it's going to stay F*cking - even though the signs keep getting stolen."
He said the name came from Mr F*ck and his family who settled in the area 100 years ago, and added "ing", meaning village or settlement.
The villagers didn't find out about the English meaning of the word until Allied soldiers stationed in the region in 1945 pointed out the alternative meaning.
Local newspaper editor Menhardt Buzasa said there had been an increase in the number of signs being stolen, and said British tourists were usually blamed.
"I do not agree it is just the British. F*cking is universal. Germans use it as much now as the British, and it also means the same to the Americans, Australians and anyone in the English speaking world," he said.
Similar votes on a name change have taken place recently in neighbouring Austrian towns Wank am see and Petting, as well as in Vomitville and Windpassing.
I thought this was a joke until I found
http://www.snopes.com/photos/austria.asp
no, it's not joke
I just wonder why is this topic under "Australia"
Austria is different country you know?
Was! Sie bedeuten, daß ich nicht österreichisch bin? Fluch! Jetzt muß ich Englisch erlernen!
Nah! You're doing just fine, Adrian.
myownusername
myownusername, thanks to Moderator for catching my error. I must have thought those weird Aussies would like up something like this, certainly not the staid Austrians.
Wait until dlowan finds out what I accused OZ of doing. She will never let me forget my goof.
BBB
As the town's founder was named Focko why don't they revert to the original spelling. I smell a bit of tourist marketing here. (talk me bad, talk me good, but talk me)
Acquiunk wrote:As the town's founder was named Focko why don't they revert to the original spelling. I smell a bit of tourist marketing here. (talk me bad, talk me good, but talk me)
The last is true as well as the speak German there (well, kind of :wink: ), and this really has no meaning at all in German.
(Besides, the tourist marketing aspect was introduced by US-Americans, visting the nearby county town Braunau [on both places nearly the only tourists besides some neo-Nazis in the latter].)