I don’t remember where I got this map from, but the context seems quite straightforward. The two figures in the foreground are saying “ein Geschwür!” (literally: “an ulcer”) and “Da sei Gott vor!” (”may God prevent this”). It must be a comment on the role of Berlin, once more the capital of Germany after Unification in 1990. Before this, West Germany’s capital was the comparatively tiny town of Bonn.
In comparison, Berlin is a megacity. It has been undergoing a rash of redevelopment after the fall of the Berlin Wall and may be drawing in too much attention (and funding) according to Germans in outlying areas. The title of this caricature is ‘Die Berliner Republik’, which I suppose is a reference to the ‘Weimarer Republik’, the nickname of the democratic but weak Germany that existed between the end of the First World War and the Nazis’ power grab in 1933.
The areas in red on the map correspond to parts of Berlin, which in reality occupies a relatively small area in the east of the country. In this map, it appears to be smothering the yellow areas, which refer to the ‘Bundesländer’ (constituent states) of the Federal Republic of Germany.
nice….
Comment by pikapoo0 — November 10, 2006 @
The term “Berliner Republik” is common for describing the re-united Germany. I would guess that this map is from a flyer of the “Bayernpartei”, a bavarian secessionist party. Note how Neukölln (high immigrant percentage) almost eats Munich. Surely, the accompanying text will argue how much better Bavaria would be off on her own.
It’s curious that in addition to its huge size, Berlin also dominates the rest of Germany by renaming quite a few places. Also the names of Berlins districts are adapted to the region they now occupy.
Changed names outside “Greater Berlin”
*Pankow-Vorpommern: Merger of “Mecklenburg-Vorpommern”, the north-eastern most Land and “Pankow”, a Berlin district known for having hosted the East German government
*Märkisch Württemberg: Fusion of “Baden-Württemberg”, the south-western most Land and the area surrounding Berlin, the “Brandenburgische Mark”
*Tegeler Bucht: new name for “Deutsche Bucht” (literally “German Bay”), after the district Tegel (cf. the airport)
*Ruppiner See: new name for “Nordsee”, “North Sea”
*Grimnitz See: new name for “Ostsee”, “Baltic Sea”
*Pfaueninsel: new name for Germany’s island of the rich and famous, Sylt, after an island in the Havel near Berlin
Inside Berlin, some district changed their names to adapt to their new locations:
*Dahlemer Pfalz: mix of Berlin district Dahlem and the area Pfalz
same principle applies for
*Spandauer Börde,
*Malchower Mark,
*Kladower Mark, and
*Marzahner Schweiz, which is a new joke based on an old joke: the most mountainous region of Saxony (Sachsen) is called “Sächsische Schweiz” (Saxon Switzerland) in joking exaggeration; Marzahn is a district of Berlin
*Großgrunewald: used to be just Grunewald
*Jungfernheide (literally “maiden’s heathland”), well-known subway station in Berlin, is now a district where there’s really Germanys biggest heathland
Then there’s Neukölle. In Berlin there a district called “Neukölln”, which might sounds like “Neuköln” (New Cologne), but has nothing to do with Germany’s 4th biggest city. It rather refers to Cölln, one of Berlin’s founding cities. However, the map-maker(s) still replaced “-kölln” by “-kölle”, which is the name of Köln/Cologne in the local dialect. Even if Neukölln were Neuköln, I wouldn’t understand way. The same misconception probably gave birth to Neu-Bonn, which in addition is in nowhere near Bonn, even in East Germany. (And there’s no such or similar Berlin district.)
Now a theory of mine: The mapmaker(s) went length to use the proper names of cities outside Germany, for which normally German names (given second) are used:
*Strasbourg/Straßburg, France
*Prahe/Prag, Czech Republic
*Szczecin/Stettin, Poland
This could be to show how much Bavarians respect their (almost) neighbors, as opposed to Germany.
Another thing is the “Freie Stadt Hamburg” (free city of Hamburg). Germany’s 2nd biggest city is a city state whose full official name is “Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg” (Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg), which, as you might have noticed, normally is not given in maps. I have no idea why this map is an exception.
Hope this helped (and hope some one reads this comment on such an old post),
Jann
Comment by Jann — November 13, 2007 @