Fucking, Austria
Encyclopedia
Fucking (ˈfʊkɪŋ, rhymes with "booking") is an Austria
n village
in the municipality of Tarsdorf
, in the Innviertel
region of western Upper Austria
. The village is 33 kilometres (20.5 mi) north of Salzburg
, 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of the German
border.
Despite having a population of only 104, the village has become famous for its name in the English-speaking world
. Its road signs are a popular visitor attraction, and were often stolen by souvenir-hunting tourists until 2005, when they were modified to be theft-resistant.
nobleman. The existence of the village was documented for the first time in 1070 and historical records show that some twenty years later the lord
was Adalpertus de Fucingin. The spelling of the name has evolved over the years; it is first recorded in historical sources with the spelling as Vucchingen in 1070, Fukching in 1303, Fugkhing in 1532, and in the modern spelling Fucking in the 18th century, which is pronounced with the vowel oo as in book. The ending -ing is an old Germanic
suffix indicating the people belonging to the root word to which it is attached, thus Fucking means "(place of) Focko’s people."
of 2001 recorded that the village had a population of 93. The Age
reported in 2005 that it had 104 people and 32 houses.
There is a bus service operated by OÖVV between Schärding
and Eggerding
which makes stops at Unterfucking
(Lower Fucking) and Oberfucking
(Upper Fucking). Bus route 2302 operates once a day from Monday to Friday.
s with its name on them, beside which tourists stop to have their photograph taken, owing to the identical spelling to the present participle of the English-language profanity fuck
. One version of the sign features the village name with an additional sign beneath it, with the words "Bitte – nicht so schnell!" ("Please — not so fast!"). The lower sign — which features an illustration of two children — is meant to advise drivers to watch their speed, but tourists see this as a double meaning coupled with the village name.
British and American soldiers based in nearby Salzburg noticed the name after World War II
, and began to travel to the village to have their photos taken beside the signs while striking various poses. The local residents, the Fuckingers, were considerably bemused as they had not previously been aware of the meaning of their village's name when read as English. Since then, the number of visitors to Fucking has increased, with the occasional visit by a tour bus.
The village is especially popular with British tourists; as a local tour guide explained: "The Germans all want to see Mozart's house in Salzburg
; the Americans want to see where The Sound of Music
was filmed; the Japanese want Hitler's birthplace in Braunau
; but for the British, it's all about Fucking." Augustina Lindlbauer, the manager of an area guesthouse, noted that the area had lakes, forests, and vistas worth visiting, but there was an "obsession with Fucking". Lindlbauer recalled how she had to explain to a British female tourist "that there were no Fucking postcards."
The road signs were commonly stolen
as souvenirs — the only crime which has been reported in the village. It cost some 300 Euro
s to replace each stolen sign, and the costs were reflected in the taxes that local residents pay. In 2004, owing mainly to the stolen signs, a vote was held on changing the village's name, but the residents voted against doing so. Tarsdorf municipality's mayor Siegfried Höppl stated that it was decided to keep the name as it had existed for 800 years, and further stated that "[e]veryone here knows what it means in English, but for us Fucking is Fucking — and it's going to stay Fucking."
After a spate of thefts, which included the theft of all four signs in one night, and a total of fifteen over a period of several years, in August 2005 the road signs were replaced with theft-resistant signs welded to steel and secured in concrete to prevent them being stolen. Mayor Höppl said that officials were fed up with English-speaking tourists stealing the signs, and noted that with the newly-installed signs it would take all night to steal one. Höppl said that tourists, and the money they bring to the area, were welcome, but locals were sick of replacing the signs. Kommandant Schmitzberger, the local police chief, also hinted at other avenues to stop what he calls "foreign criminals" from disturbing order in the village. Regarding these "other avenues", Schmitzberger stated, "[w]hat they are, I am not at liberty to disclose, but we will not stand for the Fucking signs being removed. It may be very amusing for you British, but Fucking is simply Fucking to us. What is this big Fucking joke? It is puerile."
A local resident of the village, Josef Winkler, attempted to cash in on the village's fame by setting up a website (www.fucking.at), on which he sold t-shirts featuring the village road signs, with the slogan "I like Fucking in Austria" printed on them. According to Winkler, they were selling well, and he was in negotiations with Maxim
regarding possible promotions, but was forced to stop his venture after being shouted at and threatened in the street. Winkler said, "It was a bit of fun that didn't hurt anyone, but I found out that in this region you just can't do something like that. The whole thing became a real trial for me and I had to stop. People are very traditional here."
In November 2008, the village hosted the Festival of the Fuck Bands music festival
, which featured bands Fucked Up
, Holy Fuck, Fuck
and Fuck Buttons
.
In July 2009, it was announced that the village would be installing CCTV cameras in an attempt to deter summertime tourists from filming themselves having sexual intercourse in front of the Fucking signs. A resident of the village said that installing cameras around the village may make tourists think twice and instead choose to only have a photograph taken in front of the sign. Juergen Stoll, the operator of a guesthouse at Wank, close to the Austrian-German border, stated that the residents of Fucking should be cashing in on its name, although Mayor Franz Meindl states: "We don't find it funny. We just want to be left alone. We don't harm anyone and just want to live in peace." — and added that he would prefer not to see the village being featured in the press anymore. Meindl appears to have the opposite view of former Mayor Höppl, by proclaiming that residents wish for their village to be left alone by tourists.
Putting the problem in context, however, tz-online notes that numerous villages across the border in Germany have names that are "unfortunate" even in German, including Affendorf (Monkey Village), Faulebutter (Putrid Butter), Fickmühlen (Fuck Mill), Himmelreich (Kingdom of Heaven), Katzenhirn (Cat Brain), Plöd
(Stupid), Regenmantel (Raincoat), Sklavenhaus (Slave House) and Warzen (Warts).
In 2009, the European Union's OHIM trademarks agency forbade a German brewery to market a beer called "Fucking Hell". It appealed, and was granted permission in January 2010 to market the beer. It claims the beer is named after the Austrian village Fucking and the German term for pale lager
, Hell.
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in the municipality of Tarsdorf
Tarsdorf
Tarsdorf is a municipality in the district Braunau am Inn in Upper Austria, Austria. As of 2001 it has 1,938 inhabitants. It is most famous for the village in it named Fucking.-External links:...
, in the Innviertel
Innviertel
The Innviertel is a traditional Austrian region south-east of the Inn river. It forms the western part of the state of Upper Austria and borders the German state of Bavaria...
region of western Upper Austria
Upper Austria
Upper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...
. The village is 33 kilometres (20.5 mi) north of Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
, 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
border.
Despite having a population of only 104, the village has become famous for its name in the English-speaking world
English-speaking world
The English-speaking world consists of those countries or regions that use the English language to one degree or another. For more information, please see:Lists:* List of countries by English-speaking population...
. Its road signs are a popular visitor attraction, and were often stolen by souvenir-hunting tourists until 2005, when they were modified to be theft-resistant.
Etymology
It is believed that the settlement was founded in the 6th century by Focko, a BavarianAustro-Bavarian
Bavarian , also Austro-Bavarian, is a major group of Upper German varieties spoken in the south east of the German language area.-History and origin:...
nobleman. The existence of the village was documented for the first time in 1070 and historical records show that some twenty years later the lord
Lord
Lord is a title with various meanings. It can denote a prince or a feudal superior . The title today is mostly used in connection with the peerage of the United Kingdom or its predecessor countries, although some users of the title do not themselves hold peerages, and use it 'by courtesy'...
was Adalpertus de Fucingin. The spelling of the name has evolved over the years; it is first recorded in historical sources with the spelling as Vucchingen in 1070, Fukching in 1303, Fugkhing in 1532, and in the modern spelling Fucking in the 18th century, which is pronounced with the vowel oo as in book. The ending -ing is an old Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
suffix indicating the people belonging to the root word to which it is attached, thus Fucking means "(place of) Focko’s people."
Demographics and transportation
The Austrian censusDemographics of Austria
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Austria, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....
of 2001 recorded that the village had a population of 93. The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
reported in 2005 that it had 104 people and 32 houses.
There is a bus service operated by OÖVV between Schärding
Schärding
Schärding is a town in northern Upper Austria, Austria, capital of the district of the same name, and a major port on the Inn River. As of 2001, it has a population of 5,052. Historically it was owned by the Wittelsbach family, which reflects on the town's architecture...
and Eggerding
Eggerding
Eggerding is a municipality in the district of Schärding in Upper Austria, Austria....
which makes stops at Unterfucking
Unterfucking
-References:...
(Lower Fucking) and Oberfucking
Oberfucking
Oberfucking is a populated place in Upper Austria, Austria....
(Upper Fucking). Bus route 2302 operates once a day from Monday to Friday.
Name and notoriety
Fucking's most famous feature is four traffic signTraffic sign
Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of roads to provide information to road users. With traffic volumes increasing over the last eight decades, many countries have adopted pictorial signs or otherwise simplified and standardized their signs to facilitate international travel...
s with its name on them, beside which tourists stop to have their photograph taken, owing to the identical spelling to the present participle of the English-language profanity fuck
Fuck
"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
. One version of the sign features the village name with an additional sign beneath it, with the words "Bitte – nicht so schnell!" ("Please — not so fast!"). The lower sign — which features an illustration of two children — is meant to advise drivers to watch their speed, but tourists see this as a double meaning coupled with the village name.
British and American soldiers based in nearby Salzburg noticed the name after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and began to travel to the village to have their photos taken beside the signs while striking various poses. The local residents, the Fuckingers, were considerably bemused as they had not previously been aware of the meaning of their village's name when read as English. Since then, the number of visitors to Fucking has increased, with the occasional visit by a tour bus.
The village is especially popular with British tourists; as a local tour guide explained: "The Germans all want to see Mozart's house in Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
; the Americans want to see where The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music (film)
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Music, with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and with the musical...
was filmed; the Japanese want Hitler's birthplace in Braunau
Braunau am Inn
Braunau am Inn is a town in the Innviertel region of Upper Austria , the north-western state of Austria. It lies about 90 km west of Linz and about 60 km north of Salzburg, on the border with the German state of Bavaria. The population in 2001 was 16,372...
; but for the British, it's all about Fucking." Augustina Lindlbauer, the manager of an area guesthouse, noted that the area had lakes, forests, and vistas worth visiting, but there was an "obsession with Fucking". Lindlbauer recalled how she had to explain to a British female tourist "that there were no Fucking postcards."
The road signs were commonly stolen
Street sign theft
Street sign theft occurs when street signs are stolen, often to be used as decorations, but also sometimes to avoid obeying the law by claiming later the sign was not there. Although the theft often seems arbitrary, signs that are unusual or amusing tend to be stolen more frequently...
as souvenirs — the only crime which has been reported in the village. It cost some 300 Euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
s to replace each stolen sign, and the costs were reflected in the taxes that local residents pay. In 2004, owing mainly to the stolen signs, a vote was held on changing the village's name, but the residents voted against doing so. Tarsdorf municipality's mayor Siegfried Höppl stated that it was decided to keep the name as it had existed for 800 years, and further stated that "[e]veryone here knows what it means in English, but for us Fucking is Fucking — and it's going to stay Fucking."
After a spate of thefts, which included the theft of all four signs in one night, and a total of fifteen over a period of several years, in August 2005 the road signs were replaced with theft-resistant signs welded to steel and secured in concrete to prevent them being stolen. Mayor Höppl said that officials were fed up with English-speaking tourists stealing the signs, and noted that with the newly-installed signs it would take all night to steal one. Höppl said that tourists, and the money they bring to the area, were welcome, but locals were sick of replacing the signs. Kommandant Schmitzberger, the local police chief, also hinted at other avenues to stop what he calls "foreign criminals" from disturbing order in the village. Regarding these "other avenues", Schmitzberger stated, "[w]hat they are, I am not at liberty to disclose, but we will not stand for the Fucking signs being removed. It may be very amusing for you British, but Fucking is simply Fucking to us. What is this big Fucking joke? It is puerile."
A local resident of the village, Josef Winkler, attempted to cash in on the village's fame by setting up a website (www.fucking.at), on which he sold t-shirts featuring the village road signs, with the slogan "I like Fucking in Austria" printed on them. According to Winkler, they were selling well, and he was in negotiations with Maxim
Maxim (magazine)
Maxim is an international men's magazine based in the United Kingdom and known for its pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, sometimes pictured dressed, often pictured scantily dressed but not fully nude....
regarding possible promotions, but was forced to stop his venture after being shouted at and threatened in the street. Winkler said, "It was a bit of fun that didn't hurt anyone, but I found out that in this region you just can't do something like that. The whole thing became a real trial for me and I had to stop. People are very traditional here."
In November 2008, the village hosted the Festival of the Fuck Bands music festival
Music festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
, which featured bands Fucked Up
Fucked Up
Fucked Up is a hardcore punk band from Toronto, Canada. The band won the 2009 Polaris Music Prize for the album The Chemistry of Common Life.-History:The band formed and played their first shows in early 2001...
, Holy Fuck, Fuck
Fuck (band)
Fuck is an American indie rock band, formed in Oakland, California in 1993. The band consists of Timothy Prudhomme, Geoff Soule, Kyle Statham, and Theodore Ellison. They have recorded for a number of labels including Matador Records and Homesleep Records of Italy.-History:Fuck was formed in...
and Fuck Buttons
Fuck Buttons
Fuck Buttons are a two-piece electronic group formed in Bristol in 2004 by Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power.-Biography:Hung and Power grew up in Worcester. Hung was influenced by Aphex Twin, while Power was a fan of Mogwai. They developed a friendship in 2004 while attending art school in...
.
In July 2009, it was announced that the village would be installing CCTV cameras in an attempt to deter summertime tourists from filming themselves having sexual intercourse in front of the Fucking signs. A resident of the village said that installing cameras around the village may make tourists think twice and instead choose to only have a photograph taken in front of the sign. Juergen Stoll, the operator of a guesthouse at Wank, close to the Austrian-German border, stated that the residents of Fucking should be cashing in on its name, although Mayor Franz Meindl states: "We don't find it funny. We just want to be left alone. We don't harm anyone and just want to live in peace." — and added that he would prefer not to see the village being featured in the press anymore. Meindl appears to have the opposite view of former Mayor Höppl, by proclaiming that residents wish for their village to be left alone by tourists.
Putting the problem in context, however, tz-online notes that numerous villages across the border in Germany have names that are "unfortunate" even in German, including Affendorf (Monkey Village), Faulebutter (Putrid Butter), Fickmühlen (Fuck Mill), Himmelreich (Kingdom of Heaven), Katzenhirn (Cat Brain), Plöd
Plod
Plod can refer to:*In policing;**Plod or P.C.Plod is a British slang term used to refer to a police officer, particularly one slow-witted or dull. A more recent variant is the plod, meaning the police force in general. The term originates from the character Mr. Plod, a police officer in the Noddy...
(Stupid), Regenmantel (Raincoat), Sklavenhaus (Slave House) and Warzen (Warts).
In 2009, the European Union's OHIM trademarks agency forbade a German brewery to market a beer called "Fucking Hell". It appealed, and was granted permission in January 2010 to market the beer. It claims the beer is named after the Austrian village Fucking and the German term for pale lager
Pale lager
Pale lager is a very pale to golden-coloured beer with a well attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid 19th century when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewing techniques back to the Spaten Brewery in Germany and applied it...
, Hell.