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tdloader t1_j2a7tvj wrote

Reply to comment by SchwarzeHaufen in A man goes before Saint Peter... by SchwarzeHaufen

i may be a bit thick but i dont get it :-(

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RelicBeckwelf t1_j2a8bav wrote

All those places are the same place, renamed as they were taken in wars/collapsed governments.

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tdloader t1_j2a8l7j wrote

ahh not a geography major

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sebblMUC t1_j2alxa1 wrote

This is basic school stuff. We had it three or four times in high school lol

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Awesum51Merc t1_j2crpf1 wrote

Well, isn't this place a Geographical Oddity?.....

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Ploppeldiplopp t1_j2e63se wrote

Naah. Look up how the borders in europe shifted over the last century, it's wild how many different governments some places (and people) saw.

One of my grandparents was born in a place that is now polish, but it changed hands between Poland and Germany (or Prussia way back when) so often it's just ridiculous imho.

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Dexaan t1_j2dz5b3 wrote

I've heard the same joke, but using Saint Petersburg

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SchwarzeHaufen OP t1_j2a9b5l wrote

As the other gentleman pointed out, they are all the same place. The reason this is funny though, is that it is perfectly plausible. 1918, Lemberg became Lviv, then it became Lwow after the Poles firmly took it from the Ukranians a few years later, then it became Lvov/Lviv and part of the Ukrainian S.S.R. when the Soviet Union took half of Poland in 1939, and then it became part of the German Reich after Operation Barbarossa, and then it finally went back to the Soviet Union in 1945.

A man could be born in Austria-Hungary, start school in the West Ukrainian People's Republic, graduate in the First Polish Republic, get married in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, have a child in the German Reich, and die in the Soviet Union all without ever leaving his hometown... And statistically, quite a few likely did.

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badpuffthaikitty t1_j2ahmy6 wrote

A few kilometres away from my town is a city named Kitchener. It was named New Berlin until WWI when it was renamed. Just outside it’s city limits is a village called Breslau. That name didn’t change after WWII.

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gatsadojo t1_j2aw0am wrote

Just checked the map and you sure have some interesting town names around there. I got curious because the family on my father's side is from Breslau, i.e. the European one. Oh, it's Wroclaw in Polish I think. Well anyway, today I learned something new.

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Komiksulo t1_j2ckm1c wrote

I think it was just Berlin, not New Berlin.

Apparently it was founded by Germans who got there before the British surveyors and their rectilinear plans did, so it was laid out in a more Central European fashion with streets coming together at odd angles. Which explains things like King St E, King St W, King St S, and King St N: all the same street end-to-end, but it runs in a rough horseshoe shape, most of which is neither east, west, south, or north. 🙂

Before the First World War, there were enough German-speakers there to support German-language newspapers and schools.

Fun Fact: the Lord Kitchener it was renamed after was the guy with the epic moustache on the first version of the “I want YOU!” recruiting poster.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Kitchener_Wants_You

Cite: went to Waterloo University. 🙂

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gatsadojo t1_j2aw1dc wrote

Just checked the map and you sure have some interesting town names around there. I got curious because the family on my father's side is from Breslau, i.e. the European one. Oh, it's Wroclaw in Polish I think. Well anyway, today I learned something new.

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badpuffthaikitty t1_j2b9veh wrote

Just outside New Hamburg is Punkeydoodles Corners. Yes, that is a real place. It is a nice drive visiting Paris, Washington, and London all within an afternoon.

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Snoo_90160 t1_j2ac532 wrote

Tbf most of the population unfortunately did not last that long, they were Poles and were deported to Poland after 1945. And local Poles rebelled against Ukrainians not after few years but one day: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lemberg_(1918)

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SchwarzeHaufen OP t1_j2af2cw wrote

True. I was more thinking about it from the point of view of absolute numbers. In 1900 the city had a population of 159.877 (this is the closest census we have), meaning that if only 0,1% there made it to 1945, you would have a hundred and sixty who never left. This is assuming that the population remained relatively similar through the Great War.

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Infernus-est-populus t1_j2bdqo0 wrote

Spouse’s dad is from Lviv; he would have loved this joke.

I remember going through my own dad’s things and came across some of his mother’s stuff. There was an old property deed that was written in German with an Austrian seal but for somewhere in Ukraine.

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No-Entrepreneur6040 t1_j2bp8no wrote

My Mom was from Munkacs, Czechoslovakia. She even had a friend from the old days that always called her “Checki”. I decided to look up the current city and, sure enough, found out it’s located in… Ukraine! How it got there, I’ll never know!

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OpheliaBloodstone t1_j2bteyt wrote

The places in Poland and Russia where my mother’s grandparents lived are in Ukraine now. It’s consuming everything. By 2123, there won’t be any other countries in Europe at all.

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marjanoos t1_j2di02o wrote

Actually, Lwow was Polish city since 14th century so after WWI we regained our city as well as our independenty.

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SchwarzeHaufen OP t1_j2dj7gq wrote

If you are claiming its conquest in 1349 as the start of it being a Polish city, then I think the same principle and standard ought to apply to all other ownership changes. It ceased being Polish with the First Partition of Poland, it ceased being Austrian with the collapse of the Empire and the proclamation of the various Ukrainian republics, and so on and so forth.

Otherwise, your comment is a rather pointless exercise in nationalism. One which invites tears, given the population exchanges that were conducted after the Second World War to avoid any further claims and troubles.

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marjanoos t1_j2dlfnf wrote

I meant that it was Polish city for the most of the time in the history. Also in 1909 65% of citizens spoke Polish language. I agree that the same principle applies to all ownership changes, as Wroclaw was rarely in the borders of Poland and Szczecin even less. German roots are massive there. And its uncommon in Europe to get a city without a conquer. It’s all the history.

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SchwarzeHaufen OP t1_j2dssz5 wrote

Ah, sorry. I misunderstood you there and thought this was something much worse. I was not looking forward to seeing this joke spark any sort of nationalist flag waving, as I could see that ending rather poorly for all involved.

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8richie69 t1_j2ci3qy wrote

If the man lived long enough (past the breakup of the USSR) then he could be back to Ukraine to die.

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Constant-Hawk42069 t1_j2es7x8 wrote

My understanding is it didn't change names after being taken over by the Nazis. Still a good joke though.

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SchwarzeHaufen OP t1_j2f97ju wrote

Hence why it is simply said to be the German Reich at that point. Do recall, I did not make up this joke, it is a fairly old one.

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