Sick and tired of having the piss taken out of their name, the town of Fucking in Austria has decided to cash in on it instead, releasing a hoard of Christmas souvenirs including cards and ‘Fucking’ branded beer.
The town’s unique name is thought to originate from sixth century resident, Lord Focko, with ‘ing’ being old fashioned German for ‘family of.’
Franz Meindl, mayor of Fucking had previously complained about tourists that flocked to the town to steal road signs:
“They have been a nuisance for years, some even strip off naked, and the worst steal the ‘Fucking’ signs. They think it’s funny, but a new ‘Fucking’ sign is expensive.”
In the end, the town had their sign posts cemented into the ground and their road signs welded on tight to stop the pilfering.
Mayor Meindl explained that the residents of Fucking had no idea that the name of their town had an alternative meaning until American soldiers were stationed a short distance away following the end of WWII.
“There is nothing funny in the name to us” Mayor Meindl said. “If other people laugh about it, there is nothing we can do. But we pronounce it differently in our dialect and it was never funny in any way.”
Villagers were on the verge of changing the town’s name due to the unwanted attention, until that is, they discovered that the nearby German town of Wank (we kid you not) had developed a flourishing tourism business.
The two towns are currently considering a joint range of branded inflatable ‘fun’ dolls – or at least we hope they are.
By Rebecca Jones
Twitter: @RebeccaEJones
