Embarrassing Travel Destinations

Fucking, Austria

Posted by Skyeblux , Wednesday, 20 July 2011 08:55

Probably the world's most frequently stolen street sign comes from Fucking in Austria in western upper Austria, however it is pronounced fooking like booking. it is a little villiage with only about 100 residents and apparently in 2005 they installed a new anti-theft system for their road signs!!! (Probably a racoon with a be-be gun!)

Founded int he 6th century by Focko a Barvarian nobleman, the name has twisted from Vucchingen 1070, through Fukching 1303, Fugkhing 1532 to Fucking in the 18th century ~ Place of Focko's people.

Fucking has four road signs, one of which has an additional sign displaying two children and reading "Bitte - nicht so schnell!" - Please - Not so fast!. A local tour guide commented "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."

Roaad sign theft is the only crime ever reported in this villiage of 32 houses and it costs 300euros to replace them!

From Wikipedia:
Tarsdorf municipality's mayor Siegfried Höppl stated that it was decided to keep the name as it had existed for 800 years,[7] 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."

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.[17]

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.[18] 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."

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.