The always interesting Strange Maps blog linked to this art project- a map meant to be a street map of Manhattan from 1945 after the Nazi conquest in a vision of what could have been. I’m sure people who are more familiar with Manhattan and German than I am can find some interesting things (the site provides translations in an index), but some of the more obvious things stand out very quickly: the map identifies churches, but not synagogues. The Statue of Liberty has been renamed the Victory Column. Buildings in lower Manhattan are labeled “slaughterhouse” and “crematorium.” The statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Circle has been replaced with a miniature Brandenburg Gate. A very interesting and scary map. My only complaint is that the Empire State Building is not marked. What would Hitler have done with the New York icon featured prominently in what was (possibly apocryphally) his favorite film?
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Hey! It’s not nice to talk about moderators who don’t post here anymore. 
It’s cool, but it seems to lack a coherence and politik, it’s just replacing American Street names with generic German street names and city outlay. It lacks a realism, just some randow German Words…
I think, even if the Nazi’s had won, the street names would remain in English. Where’s Messerschmitt Center (Rockefellar Center) and Goebbels Square?
Also, somehow I don’t think Nazi Germany would have an U-Bahn station called Onkel-Toms-Hutte.
No, no. See, that’s a copyright trap.
There was (and still is) one of that name in Berlin. Those names that aren’t generic (inluding the subway stop names) seem to have been copied and pasted from Berlin.
There was (and still is) one of that name in Berlin. Those names that aren’t generic (including the subway stop names) seem to have been copied and pasted from Berlin.
Hmm. My former home seems to have become the “Stuff House”
I have this little voice in the back of my head saying that the thread title should inclune Wilkommen bei Nazi Manhattan. Am I wrong?
Indeed, that is exactly what was done.
The message appears to be that New York after the extermination of all Jews would remain pretty much the same. That’s reassuring to know.
I see that Melissa Gould has a good grasp on the rich and venerable tradition of the “inflated statement of artistic intent:”
Me, I never bothered to shovel it that deep during my college critiques unless the project wasn’t finished yet.
Relabeling the Metropolitan Museum of Art as the “Reichstag” seems a bit over the top though. Wouldn’t it logically be “das Neu-York Museum fuer Volkischer Kunst” or some such nonsense? Come to think of it, if the Nazis went to the trouble of replacing every non-Germanic place name in the city, why would they retain the name “York?” Seems like it ought to be “Neu-Friedrichsdorf” or something like that.
If Melissa Gould considers this an audacious artistic undertaking, I reckon she must not read a lot of science fiction. There have been a couple few variations on this general theme since the war.
Actually it’s “in” because it’s a city (same for regions, countries etc.) “Nach Nazi Manhattan” is a correct translation of “to Nazi Manhattan.” That’s just not used in this idiom in German. “Bei” is used for businesses, organizations and the like.
“Willkommen bei Nazi Manhattan!” is what you might have heard after opening a bank account.
Frankly, I didn’t know what the German equivalent of “to” would be- I just used Babelfish. Good to see it’s right, though!
This did recall a painting by Mark Tansey of German Solders milling about in SoHo. Entierly differenty theme admittedly, but by a much better artist.
Like kellner wrote, it isn’t really right.
It should be “Willkommen in Nazi Manhattan”
“Nazi-Manhattan Bank! As Secure as the Mark Itself!”
I know that, but the use of that name interferes with the suspension of disbelief.
I think that particular U-Bahn name interfered with suspension of disbelief in the actual physical city of Berlin, both in 1939 (I found it on a Berlin map from that year) and now!
It was named after the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onkel_Toms_Hütte_(Berlin_U-Bahn)
That URL doesn’t seem to work. Try this, or do a Google search and read the wikipedia entry:
This makes for nice sequential threads, just below (before I posted) was “Holy Crap I’m in Manhattan”