Comments on: Neu-York.

Neu-York.

languagehat — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:40:29 -0800

"An obsessively detailed alternate-history map, imagining how Manhattan might have looked had the Nazis conquered it in World War II." A project by artist Melissa Gould. The neighborhoods (Charlottenburg, Neukölln, etc.) are named for corresponding Berlin ones. Schrecklich fun. Via strange maps.

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:54:40 -0800

Yeah, I note the motherf*kin' Nazis didn't quite manage to take Harlem. Good luck with that one, boys.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:56:18 -0800

Her Potzdamer Platz station ("Times Square") should really be Kurfürstendamm.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:59:41 -0800

What you can't see is that the trains all run on time.

By: John Kenneth Fisher

John Kenneth Fisher — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:00:30 -0800

"There are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade." --Rick Blaine

By: John Kenneth Fisher

John Kenneth Fisher — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:01:28 -0800

It doesn't seem very realistic to me that the Nazis would have changed all the street names.

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:01:47 -0800

Excellent work.

By: Burger-Eating Invasion Monkey

Burger-Eating Invasion Monkey — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:01:58 -0800

Especially considering they didn't do that in Paris, for instance.

By: kolophon

kolophon — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:03:42 -0800

So if I ever move to New York I'll have to get a flat in the Division Street, which was renamed to the street I'm actually living in on this map. I have to say, Neukölln is a way better adress in New York than in Berlin. Manhattan instead of a run-down workers district.

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:07:40 -0800

But I don't think it's typical to completely rename every street in a conquered city. Especially not to use all the names from the victor's capital. Surely this would create a massive headache for the Reich postal authorities? A more likely scenario would be to use new local "heros" for naming a few key things. Every communist city ended up with a Karl-Marx street, what would the Nazis want Americans to newly identify with? Surely Ford would still be kosher, what else would the Quislings of the US put forward?

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:10:24 -0800

It doesn't seem very realistic to me that the Nazis would have changed all the street names. Well, Wall Street keeps its name. But yeah, she went a little overboard. (Hard to resist, though.)

By: matteo

matteo — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:13:48 -0800

good luck finding a bagel!

By: Atreides

Atreides — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:16:21 -0800

That was my biggest fault with the map, as well, the crazy re-naming scheme. Perhaps at worse, she might have just tried respelling (versus replacing) some street names in German in the same way that the Soviet Union impressed Russian on its fellow socialist states.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:21:50 -0800

Hi Melissa!

By: Verdant

Verdant — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:23:08 -0800

Thanks for this, but even more thanks for the Strange Maps site.

By: lou

lou — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:35:25 -0800

The numbered streets would probably have remained the same. Major throughfares, particularly "Ave of the Americas" would have probably been renamed pretty quickly, to Karl Marx or Hitlerstrasse or whatever Nazi figure needed honorary street naming. Newer streets would of course mostly get German names from that period on. But unless this fictional Nazi-American capital had a particularly overeager city planning official, I imagine that inertia would have kept a lot of English holdovers. Look at the rest of the U.S. for example. I live in California, where a large portion of the place and street names are in Spanish, but there's also tons of places out in the Midwest where place names are consistently borrowed from the Native Americans.

By: DU

DU — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:41:03 -0800

Question: Has the US been renaming streets (or other sociogeographic features) in Iraq?

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:50:22 -0800

I don't think so, DU, but remember that in Iraq, there's still at least a small pretense that the US hasn't actually conquered the place.

By: The Michael The

The Michael The — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:51:46 -0800

Question: Has the US been renaming streets (or other sociogeographic features) in Iraq? Cab Driver: "Sorry it took so long, but the Cheney Expressway was backed up all the way to Halliburton Road." Buster: "Take Condoleezza Rice Lane. It's quicker."

By: Henry C. Mabuse

Henry C. Mabuse — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:05:23 -0800

Excessively America-centric post.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:06:31 -0800

Man, burning this thing into the palm of my hand would be a bitchzen. Instead, I'll have to be all unbuttoning my shirt and showing my pasty, scarred physique as I say, "Doktor Jones, ve alzo have a map to zee subway station." Not quite as cool, if you ask me.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:35:08 -0800

How, exactly, are the Nazis supposed to have transported all these Aryan Stormtroopers to the New World in the face of resistance by the US Navy? Magic?

By: chlorus

chlorus — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:42:42 -0800

"An obsessively detailed alternate-history map, imagining how Manhattan might have looked had the Nazis conquered it in World War II. Wait till you see my obsessively detailed alternate-history map of how Keith Richards face might have looked had he never tried heroin.

By: ersatz

ersatz — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:57:32 -0800

How, exactly, are the Nazis supposed to have transported all these Aryan Stormtroopers to the New World in the face of resistance by the US Navy? Magic? I bet that's the alternate-history part. Still, not as unbelievable as Keith Richards having not single-handedly funded the development of heroin-exporting countries.

By: Atom Eyes

Atom Eyes — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:01:50 -0800

What, no Bush Strasse?

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:13:49 -0800

How, exactly, are the Nazis supposed to have transported all these Aryan Stormtroopers to the New World in the face of resistance by the US Navy? Magic? Fuck off big zepplins and flying wings, I would have thought. Though why these alt-history Nazis didn't start their invasion by dropping a nazi A-bomb on manhattan I've no idea. Major throughfares, particularly "Ave of the Americas" would have probably been renamed pretty quickly, to Karl Marx or Hitlerstrasse or whatever Nazi figure needed honorary street naming. I really rather doubt nazis would have Karl Marx strasse as a road name.

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:15:09 -0800

It Happened Here in London, too.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:16:59 -0800

It happened on Metafilter too.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:25:06 -0800

Maulbeerbaum Straße ... and Wert... Kreuz and Orange... and Klein Wasser. Each of the Funf Punkte is a finger. When I close my hand it becomes a fist. And, if I wish, I can turn it against you.

By: goatdog

goatdog — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:27:55 -0800

How, exactly, are the Nazis supposed to have transported all these Aryan Stormtroopers to the New World in the face of resistance by the US Navy? Magic? First they disabled the US Navy with their genetically engineered half-dolphin/half-V1 creatures, then they depopulated the city with swarms of radioactive tsetse flies that were engineered to bite only people who failed to respond properly to a pre-recorded "Heil Hitler!" salutation. The rest was a cakewalk.

By: Bromius

Bromius — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:34:02 -0800

Lindberghstrasse, anyone?

By: paddbear

paddbear — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:35:21 -0800

How, exactly, are the Nazis supposed to have transported all these Aryan Stormtroopers to the New World in the face of resistance by the US Navy? Magic? Wy, Alien Space Bats, of course!

By: Bromius

Bromius — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:37:57 -0800

Also, why does the Brooklyn Bridge now, apparently, lead to Potsdam?

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:59:04 -0800

Nazi space-warp.

By: Artifice_Eternity

Artifice_Eternity — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:20:18 -0800

Surely Ford would still be kosher, what else would the Quislings of the US put forward? Lindbergh, probably.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:28:34 -0800

As in Roth's The Plot Against America (a wonderful book, by the way, if you like literate alternate history novels).

By: Zangal

Zangal — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:05:33 -0800

Like New Yorkers would allow anyone to rename their streets...

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:22:53 -0800

They'd just go on using the old ones. Their response to "Ist das Wilhelmstrasse?" would be identical to their current response to "Is this Avenue of the Americas?": "Yeah, this is Sixth Avenue."

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:30:46 -0800

The Man In The High Castle Strasse

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:54:56 -0800

The Edge of the American West posted a link to the wonderful and funny map of Newyorkistan. Kvetchnya! Hah!

By: moonbiter

moonbiter — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:09:15 -0800

Sky Captain would never have allowed this invasion to happen.

By: ereshkigal45

ereshkigal45 — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:08:54 -0800

Those that are quibbling about the details ("the Germans wouldn't have blah blah blah") should note that Ms. Gould is an artist and the point was not to achieve some sort of historical plausability but to provoke thought and discussion. If she were a cartographer by trade the concerns cited might be less forgiveable, but she's an artist who works in media as small as woodcuts ("From Adler to Zilber") and as large as hillsides ("Kaboom"). I'd give links, but her site is not terribly link friendly - you'll find the mentioned work a few clicks into her portfolio.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:21:59 -0800

Nazis in New York for reals (previously). Well, Nazi lovers, at least

By: lemuel

lemuel — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:06:51 -0800

i never understood why we would rename Washington International to Reagan. GW was the founder of our Country.!

By: hurdy gurdy girl

hurdy gurdy girl — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:12:12 -0800

That Strange Maps site is great--thanks.

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:13:54 -0800

London would have been a more disquieting. Or better yet Moscow, that would have caused a frisson. I get it, she's an artist, but it loses points for the sheer implausability. That said, it's well done. I have a much treasured NYC map from 1949 with much the same look and feel.

By: dazed_one

dazed_one — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:14:49 -0800

Surely Ford would still be kosher, what else would the Quislings of the US put forward? I don't think much would be kosher actually, all things considered.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:54:46 -0800

i never understood why we would rename Washington International to Reagan. Especially after he fired air traffic controllers.

By: damn dirty ape

damn dirty ape — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:49:57 -0800

Ms. Gould is an artist and the point was not to achieve some sort of historical plausability but to provoke thought and discussion. No shit sherlock. Asking how the Nazis would take NY is having more fun with a dry concept. I say the japanese took the west coat, then the midwest fell, and the east coast just surrendered, thus all the streets are still in one piece.

By: oaf

oaf — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:38:00 -0800

Excessively America-centric post. Excessively Midtown-centric post.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 09:18:37 -0800

I wish someone would do something like this for diehard DC comics fans. I'd like to see an attempt to figure out where Metropolis and Gotham are in relation to one another and New York as well as Fairfax, Star City, Fawcett City... Oh woah. Cool! Thanks LanguageHat!