# Achtung! Willkommen nach Nazi Manhattan (an alternate-history map) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 12, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achtung-willkommen-nach-nazi-manhattan-an-alternate-history-map/433223 "2008-01-12T01:31:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ChiefScott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achtung-willkommen-nach-nazi-manhattan-an-alternate-history-map/433223/21 "2008-01-15T19:01:31Z")
I love the link to the “Strange Maps” site. I’d never heard of it before. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achtung-willkommen-nach-nazi-manhattan-an-alternate-history-map/433223/22 "2008-01-15T19:10:21Z")
I’m not really sure what it’s a cautionary tale against. I mean, the Nazis HAVE been defeated. Is it saying that we have to crush out evil in case it arises again? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achtung-willkommen-nach-nazi-manhattan-an-alternate-history-map/433223/23 "2008-01-16T16:52:34Z")
[QUOTE=MeGo] 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: > **[Onkel Toms Hütte (Berlin U-Bahn)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onkel_Toms_H%C3%BCtte_(Berlin_U-Bahn))** > > .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct,.mw-parser-output .geo-inline-hidden{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}52°27′01″N 13°15′12″E / 52.45028°N 13.25333°E / 52.45028; 13.25333 > Onkel Toms Hütte (English: Uncle Tom's Cabin) is a Berlin U-Bahn station located in the Zehlendorf district. Since 12 December 2004 it ... [/QUOTE] Wow, I knew it existed but that’s bizarre that it was already open in 1939. Did they know the significance, and/or did it keep the same name? ---
**Author:** ![MeGo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/49beb7/32.png) [@MeGo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeGo)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achtung-willkommen-nach-nazi-manhattan-an-alternate-history-map/433223/24 "2008-01-16T22:04:50Z")
I imagine it was so named before Nazi rule, obviously a gesture against slavery, by a more open-minded society. It indeed was on the 1939 Berlin map, the same map that had an Adolf Hitler Strasse, a Herman Goering Strasse and a Horst Wessel Platz. I could consult a Berlin map, say, from 1944, to see if the station still had that same name. One would think that ultimately the Nazis would have changed it, as people of color did not coincide with their ideas of Aryan racial superiority; ethnic Africans were depicted as inferior. Remember African-American Jesse Owens who won four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin – Hitler refused to so much as shake his hand. Perhaps the Nazis just hadn’t gotten around to that particular name change in 1939, or maybe they had no idea as to its significance. Who knows? If it wasn’t altered on a later map one might conclude that they were too busy with the war itself to concentrate on street renaming but I’d be curious to see if and when this particular station was indeed renamed under the Nazi regime. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achtung-willkommen-nach-nazi-manhattan-an-alternate-history-map/433223/25 "2008-01-16T23:46:46Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit] I’m not really sure what it’s a cautionary tale against. I mean, the Nazis HAVE been defeated. Is it saying that we have to crush out evil in case it arises again? [/QUOTE] I think it might just be a reminder “be lucky the Nazis _were_ defeated and this isn’t a reality.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achtung-willkommen-nach-nazi-manhattan-an-alternate-history-map/433223.md?page=1)