After years, peace has reigned in the Austrian village of Fugging. After last year’s name change, malicious tourists who took pictures at a sign on its border stopped heading for it. Fugging was called Fucking until the end of last year, which in written form coincides with the English vulgar expression for sexual intercourse.
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The Austrian village rested after the name change, got rid of unwanted tourists Video: Reuters
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“Since we changed our name, peace has returned and the quality of life is as it should be,” Andrea Holzner, mayor of the Upper Austrian municipality of Tarsdorf, of which Fugging is a part, told APA. “So renaming was an unusual but effective step,” she added.
However, not all residents of the village, which has about a hundred inhabitants, agree with the mayor. Some are demanding a return to the village’s historic name, creating a petition called “Make Fucking Great Again,” inspired by the motto of former US President Donald Trump’s campaign (Make America Great Again).
The deputies changed the name of Fucking last year because they were already tired of the interest of jokers on the Internet and those who came to the village to take a photo at a sign indicating its beginning or end. In addition, traffic signs with the words Fucking became the subject of frequent thefts, and the municipality of Tarsdorf had to pay for their replacement.
One of the last signs with the original name of the village, it has now entered the Museum of the History of Austria in Vienna. It has been on display since Sunday in the main exhibition. According to the director of the prestigious institution Monika Sommerová, the sign “clearly shows how social networks have turned attention into a new currency”.
According to some sources, the name Fucking was derived from the name of a certain Adalpert von Vucckingen, who lived here in the 11th century. According to other sources, the Bavarian nobleman Focko, who lived in the 6th century, is to blame. The suffix -ing is relatively common in the names of Bavarian municipalities. The name Fugging is one of the alternative ways of writing the name of the village, which appeared in historical sources before the designation Fucking became established.
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