[Leica] Hitler Street

[Howard Ritter]

When I was stationed near Adana, Turkey, in 1978-9, I lived in an apartment building on a street called Mücahitler Caddesi. Knowing of Turkey’s somewhat fraught history with Germany, I initially wondered if this name were the result of a lingering admiration for the dictator (Turkish members of the list, please forgive my naïveté and the implied slur on the honor of Turks everywhere!).

No worries! As I soon learned, the name means “Mujahidin Avenue” The Arabic word “mujahid”  (plural mujahidin) refers to one who struggles or fights for Islam and is rendered in the Turkish alphabet as “müjahit”. The suffix “-ler” is the Turkish way of forming the plural. The letter ‘c’ is pronounced like English ‘dj’. 

Modern Turkish usage borrows a lot of words from European languages. In a bit of serendipity, some Turk realized that the English word “muffler” looked like a Turkish plural, so that now car-repair shops often feature signs advertising “Müffler” in case your car’s exhaust has suddenly become raucous.

—howard


> On Feb 18, 2016, at 8:27 AM, Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:
> 
> Interesting bit of persistance by the burghers of Kimmel. I would not like to live on a Hitler St.
> 
> However, similiar stuff here in Ireland - my parents had their weekly laundry collected, cleaned and delivered back by a man in a black uniform, with a black military style peaked cap, driving a red van emblazoned with the Swastika. The Swastika laundry in Dublin was founded back in 1912.
> http://theinquisition.eu/wordpress/2011/culture/swastika-laundry/
> 
> Strangely enough, there is the "possibility" that those laundry vans inspired Adolf Hitler to use the same colours. His brother Alois who had worked in Dublin, had married an Irish woman Bridget Dowling and moved to live in Liverpool. She subsequently claimed in her book that Hitler had visited her there, and also visited her family home in Dublin c1912-1913 when dodging conscription. One can only speculate that the more or less brand new laundry vans whizzing around in their bright colours close to the Dowling family home - only a kilometre away from the laundry - influenced the failed Austrian artist and future mass murderer....
> 
> Douglas
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher Crawford" <chris at chriscrawfordphoto.com>
> To: <lug at leica-users.org>; <olympus at thomasclausen.net>
> Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2016 2:19 AM
> Subject: [Leica] Hitler Street
> 
> 
>> Wandering around the small town of Kimmell, Indiana, I was surprised to
>> discover that the town has a road called Hitler Street. Yes, HITLER Street!
>> I think that may be the most shocking thing that I have ever seen in my
>> travels, and I have seen some pretty strange things.
>> 
>> http://chriscrawfordphoto.com/chris-details.php?product=2302
>> 
>> -- 
>> Chris Crawford
>> Fine Art Photography
>> Fort Wayne, Indiana
>> 260-437-8990
>> 
>> http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com  My portfolio
>> 
>> http://www.facebook.com/pages/Christopher-Crawford/48229272798
>> Become a fan on Facebook
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