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badpuffthaikitty t1_j2ahmy6 wrote

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

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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