About the languages, since you didn't really clarify it in the video: What you showed had nothing to do with Poland or Czechia. While there are multiple language street signs along those borders, as far as I know, those usually have PL or CZ written next to the place names to indicate. Sorbian language is very specific to the region you showed on the map and doesn't show up anywhere else. Frisian signs don't only exist in the region you showed but also south-west of it. In the whole northern half of Germany it's getting more common to also have signs in low german, sometimes on the same signs as the german names, sometimes on a separate sign next to it. Danish is also a language you might see on signs in the northernmost state, since it's an officially recognised minority language there, similarly to Sorbian in Saxony and Brandenburg. Generally speaking, if you see a street sign that has a place name in multiple languages you're almost always in the northern half of germany. If it's slavic looking, definitely in that very specific small region near the czech and polish borders. As far as I know, there are no french or dutch signs anywhere along the borders but I might be wrong about that.
Thank you for all of this! Plenty to take in from here. Very useful info on low german and especially the Danish in the far north state. Will keep an eye on the bilingual signs and check if they end up appearing elsewhere. Really appreciate this comment, thank you for sharing :)
4:55 It is bilingual, but it is neither Polish nor Czech. It also has nothing to do with the proximity to either country. It's a language all of its own, called Sorbian, and this language is only spoken in Germany. In fact, there are two quite similar languages called Upper and Lower Sorbian. As Slavic languages, they have similar letters to Czech and Polish to spell typical Slavic sounds, but you can't tell from the letters if you are more close to the Czech Republic or to Poland, as the letters are used everywhere the Sorbian languages are spoken, which is east of the line Spreewald-Dresden. The bilingual region does not border the Czech Republic at all though. Case in point: The town Forst (Lausitz) is called Baršć (Łužyca) in Lower Sorbian and lies directly at the border to Poland, but despite the seemingly Czech letters š and ž, is about 100 km away from the nearest Czech border. Interestingly though, the Polish name for Forst is also Forst, not Barść or Barszcz or similar, as the Polish rendering of Baršć would suggest. The bilingual village closest to the Czech Republic would be Großpostwitz/Budestecy, about 20 km north of the Czech border. All towns and villages south of Großpostwitz/Budestecy, e.g. Schirgiswalde or Taubenheim, are monolingual German.
About the houses in the North West of Germany: There are a few different types of vernacular architecture along the North Sea Coast and the Northern German Plains. Because these are in a similar landscape there are some common elements (with local variations) like the angle and shape (often half-hipped) of the roof, materials that are local (reed thatched) or hold up well to the weather (bricks)* and often times these are also houses that were build to combine all or most needed farm functions under one roof (byre-dwelling - Wohnstallhaus) which is why you often have big barn doors on one side of the building and the nicely decorated windows on the other side. Often times they also have specific orientations, the west side usually doesn't have doors and sometimes the roof goes nearly to the ground(stormy West Wind zone). The example you showed for "brick houses" looks like a Gulf house, the one for "Thatched Roof" like an Uthland-Frisian house (found in the North Frisian Uthlande), a variaton of the Geesthardenhouse (Geest is a specific type of landscape though these houses can also be found on the Marsch). A rare, but very distinctive variation of the Gulf house is the Haubarg. Another basic type is the Low German house or Fachhallenhaus. Looking these up on Wikipedia could be helpful, all the articles link to each other and other house types and also describe the local variations (the german articles more than the english though). It's also just interesting in general :-) The traditional gable decoration of Low German houses, the crossed horse heads are a notable feature too, especially since you sometimes see them on more modern houses too, that otherwise wouldn't be as regionally distinctive. Even more regional specific are gable decoration in the shape of swans** (Altes Land (?)) or artistically turned posts (Wendland). On another note if houses are covered in a lot of slate you are usually in a region were slate is commonly found (specific middle german mountainous regions like the Rhenish (Slate) Uplands, Harz etc.) *Sometimes more generic half timbered houses have their weather side (west) - and only that one side - covered in brick (or slate or roof tiles or whatever else protects). **though if the more heavily stylized and ornamented versions are still recognizable as one specific animal is sometimes questionable.
If you are on the countryside in the middle of nowhere with no buildings in sight but you can see a high voltage line the form of the electricity pylons can be useful. If they have the form of "Christmas trees" you are more likely in the western part of Germany. If you see a pylon that has a more flat top you are more likely in the eastern part of Germany.
I am missing -ingen as place name ending. those are all mid to south in Baden würtenberg to the Swiss border or sometimes even in switzerland. Expecially if you see multiple -ingen place names. This is a pretty big clue
Nice video! I'm german and have been grinding germany since the new footage came out and noticed a few more things: Church roofs can be very useful, especially the "bavarian onion roof". Also there are Bicycle direction signs that not only show town names, but can be specific to a certain region. Beer brands can vary between very useful (for example if you see Gilde go Hanover or if you see Binding go Frankfurt) and not useful at all because they are found all around the country (Bitburger, Warsteiner etc.). Germany also has a "sticker culture" in bigger towns, where poles are full of stickers and the most common are football clubs, so it can be worth having a look at the logos and abbreviations of football clubs. Furthermore the discounter Aldi is split between Aldi Nord (north) and Aldi Süd (south), which literally divides Germany in the middle, so these two logos are worth learning. I've only seen snow coverage in three places so far: The Bundesstraße 12 in the far south, some roads in the Harz forest and most useful in northern Hamburg. Obviously Street signs, Bus stops and thrash cans are very useful sometimes, but there is a lot to learn.
Thank you! And cheers for sparing your time leaving this comment, whilst sharing all these tips! Will keep these noted and hope others who come across this comment learn from it too :)
The flag of Germany consits of three horizontal stripes from up to down: black - red - gold (orange/yellow-ish). This is what the flag looks like: 🇩🇪 (If you do not see a flag, your device/browser is not able to display the emojii. In this case just google the flag. )
There is a very specific but maybe useful trick. Most german states have a few top level soccer clubs, but Hessen (that's the state in the center) has only Eintracht Frankfurt. And naturally most soccer fans in Hessen support Eintracht Frankfurt. So if you spot graffiti tags or stickers that say "SGE" or "UF" sometimes with a "97" added to the end, you're probably in Hessen. Also watch out for a black and white Flag with a red eagle in the center and some writing on it. I lived in Hessen my entire life and im still surprised to find those tags in the most random places.
nice video. i made a video about a strategy for germany too. Its called the district strategy. I think that it is actually the best strategy for Germany, but you have to know every urban district in germany. definetly gonna make a video about postal codes too.
@@HarrierGeoGuessr yeah its not that hard i learned every urban district in like less than a day so if you're gonna learn this you will most likely win against every other player in germany
While concrete prefabricated buildings are common throughout Germany, and some single ones can be found even in small towns, while most cities about 100,000 inhabitants and above will have at least one "Großwohnsiedlung" with only them, the ones shown are exclusively in East Germany, however there also about everywhere in cities and larger towns and not only Berlin or Schwerin. Western styles look a lot different, usually with each appartment having a large balcony extending far beyond the door leading to it. Also the symmetrical double windows are rather uncommon in the west. There it is usually a large and a small part, splitting the window 2:1 thirds the size. Street quality is not an indicator anymore, some people even say road surface has become worse in the west than in the east due to the flow of tax money into the east for a long time. But what can be said with larger precision is materials. Concrete like in the picture is pretty much uncommon in the west, where except for some multi-storey parking decks around such large residential building you should always find tarmac surfaces or small concrete made paving stones (usually 10 x 20 cm or so) in parking lots and for sure tarmac on about every street. In rural areas of the east you might even still find cobblestone occasionally. Brick is also common more south along the western border. I live close to Cologne in a street with 22 houses, 3 of which are plastered. The rest is red brick, and the same applies for about every street in every village around here.
Thanks so much for sharing Mirko! Very useful info and thanks for going into more depth with the architecture here. Will definetly keep this in mind :)
I'd like to add something about poor road quality. There is poor road quality and poor road quality . In the former GDR part of Germany (the East) you often have the Plattenbau architecture and assorted "Plattenbau architecture roads" . Think Eastern European cities . In the west poor roads ofter were good roads that broke down and got patch repaired.
Just haven't changed it haha. Had a rule back in the day is I only use stuff as a profile image if I took the image myself. Unfortunately I have no decent images of a Hen Harrier. Maybe a change in the future :)
that is simply not true. None of modern germany was ever polish. Exept you think all slavic people are poles which czechs and everybody else will deny. Many Regions actually sought protection from poland and therefore joined the HRE. Which is why f.e. lords of slavic origin ruled mecklenburg until 1919. Please don't BS complicated historic processes with your nationalism. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostsiedlung
About the languages, since you didn't really clarify it in the video: What you showed had nothing to do with Poland or Czechia. While there are multiple language street signs along those borders, as far as I know, those usually have PL or CZ written next to the place names to indicate. Sorbian language is very specific to the region you showed on the map and doesn't show up anywhere else. Frisian signs don't only exist in the region you showed but also south-west of it. In the whole northern half of Germany it's getting more common to also have signs in low german, sometimes on the same signs as the german names, sometimes on a separate sign next to it. Danish is also a language you might see on signs in the northernmost state, since it's an officially recognised minority language there, similarly to Sorbian in Saxony and Brandenburg. Generally speaking, if you see a street sign that has a place name in multiple languages you're almost always in the northern half of germany. If it's slavic looking, definitely in that very specific small region near the czech and polish borders. As far as I know, there are no french or dutch signs anywhere along the borders but I might be wrong about that.
Thank you for all of this! Plenty to take in from here. Very useful info on low german and especially the Danish in the far north state. Will keep an eye on the bilingual signs and check if they end up appearing elsewhere. Really appreciate this comment, thank you for sharing :)
I'm German and I wasn't even aware of how region specific some of those suffixes are. Great work!
Thank you, and hope they come into great use for you :)
4:55 It is bilingual, but it is neither Polish nor Czech. It also has nothing to do with the proximity to either country. It's a language all of its own, called Sorbian, and this language is only spoken in Germany. In fact, there are two quite similar languages called Upper and Lower Sorbian. As Slavic languages, they have similar letters to Czech and Polish to spell typical Slavic sounds, but you can't tell from the letters if you are more close to the Czech Republic or to Poland, as the letters are used everywhere the Sorbian languages are spoken, which is east of the line Spreewald-Dresden. The bilingual region does not border the Czech Republic at all though. Case in point: The town Forst (Lausitz) is called Baršć (Łužyca) in Lower Sorbian and lies directly at the border to Poland, but despite the seemingly Czech letters š and ž, is about 100 km away from the nearest Czech border. Interestingly though, the Polish name for Forst is also Forst, not Barść or Barszcz or similar, as the Polish rendering of Baršć would suggest.
The bilingual village closest to the Czech Republic would be Großpostwitz/Budestecy, about 20 km north of the Czech border. All towns and villages south of Großpostwitz/Budestecy, e.g. Schirgiswalde or Taubenheim, are monolingual German.
About the houses in the North West of Germany: There are a few different types of vernacular architecture along the North Sea Coast and the Northern German Plains. Because these are in a similar landscape there are some common elements (with local variations) like the angle and shape (often half-hipped) of the roof, materials that are local (reed thatched) or hold up well to the weather (bricks)* and often times these are also houses that were build to combine all or most needed farm functions under one roof (byre-dwelling - Wohnstallhaus) which is why you often have big barn doors on one side of the building and the nicely decorated windows on the other side. Often times they also have specific orientations, the west side usually doesn't have doors and sometimes the roof goes nearly to the ground(stormy West Wind zone).
The example you showed for "brick houses" looks like a Gulf house, the one for "Thatched Roof" like an Uthland-Frisian house (found in the North Frisian Uthlande), a variaton of the Geesthardenhouse (Geest is a specific type of landscape though these houses can also be found on the Marsch). A rare, but very distinctive variation of the Gulf house is the Haubarg.
Another basic type is the Low German house or Fachhallenhaus.
Looking these up on Wikipedia could be helpful, all the articles link to each other and other house types and also describe the local variations (the german articles more than the english though). It's also just interesting in general :-)
The traditional gable decoration of Low German houses, the crossed horse heads are a notable feature too, especially since you sometimes see them on more modern houses too, that otherwise wouldn't be as regionally distinctive. Even more regional specific are gable decoration in the shape of swans** (Altes Land (?)) or artistically turned posts (Wendland).
On another note if houses are covered in a lot of slate you are usually in a region were slate is commonly found (specific middle german mountainous regions like the Rhenish (Slate) Uplands, Harz etc.)
*Sometimes more generic half timbered houses have their weather side (west) - and only that one side - covered in brick (or slate or roof tiles or whatever else protects).
**though if the more heavily stylized and ornamented versions are still recognizable as one specific animal is sometimes questionable.
The design of the street signs are very insightful too
Berlin, Munich etc all have quite iconic signs
Yeah I agree, street signs have a lot of potential for sure! And also worth looking into Bus Stop Sign Designs too :)
If you are on the countryside in the middle of nowhere with no buildings in sight but you can see a high voltage line the form of the electricity pylons can be useful. If they have the form of "Christmas trees" you are more likely in the western part of Germany. If you see a pylon that has a more flat top you are more likely in the eastern part of Germany.
Ooh, will keep that noted these down for future rounds! Thanks for sharing! :)
I am missing -ingen as place name ending. those are all mid to south in Baden würtenberg to the Swiss border or sometimes even in switzerland. Expecially if you see multiple -ingen place names. This is a pretty big clue
Been tossed in with -ing, which is definitely wrong since those are definitely distinct by region.
Same as -rod and -rode.
Oh nice, yeah that would be a handy one to use for sure. Thanks for sharing :)
This can be misleading, however, since -ingen and -engen can also be found around the Dutch-German border
Or in Rheinland-Pfalz
Nice video! I'm german and have been grinding germany since the new footage came out and noticed a few more things: Church roofs can be very useful, especially the "bavarian onion roof". Also there are Bicycle direction signs that not only show town names, but can be specific to a certain region. Beer brands can vary between very useful (for example if you see Gilde go Hanover or if you see Binding go Frankfurt) and not useful at all because they are found all around the country (Bitburger, Warsteiner etc.). Germany also has a "sticker culture" in bigger towns, where poles are full of stickers and the most common are football clubs, so it can be worth having a look at the logos and abbreviations of football clubs. Furthermore the discounter Aldi is split between Aldi Nord (north) and Aldi Süd (south), which literally divides Germany in the middle, so these two logos are worth learning. I've only seen snow coverage in three places so far: The Bundesstraße 12 in the far south, some roads in the Harz forest and most useful in northern Hamburg. Obviously Street signs, Bus stops and thrash cans are very useful sometimes, but there is a lot to learn.
Thank you! And cheers for sparing your time leaving this comment, whilst sharing all these tips! Will keep these noted and hope others who come across this comment learn from it too :)
Thanks for these! The place names suffixes look really useful
You're welcome PopGuy, happy you find those useful :)
Another good tip: If you see a Germany Flag in a backyard of a suburb it's very likely that you are in the EAstern part of Germany.
The flag of Germany consits of three horizontal stripes from up to down: black - red - gold (orange/yellow-ish).
This is what the flag looks like:
🇩🇪
(If you do not see a flag, your device/browser is not able to display the emojii. In this case just google the flag. )
There is a very specific but maybe useful trick. Most german states have a few top level soccer clubs, but Hessen (that's the state in the center) has only Eintracht Frankfurt. And naturally most soccer fans in Hessen support Eintracht Frankfurt. So if you spot graffiti tags or stickers that say "SGE" or "UF" sometimes with a "97" added to the end, you're probably in Hessen. Also watch out for a black and white Flag with a red eagle in the center and some writing on it.
I lived in Hessen my entire life and im still surprised to find those tags in the most random places.
Ooh footie tips for Regionguessing countries, especially Germany! Thanks for sharing and will keep an eye out for them stickers :)
"Plattenbau" was spot-on!
Though they are not exclusive to East Germany. They can sometimes be found in West Germany as well.
I am in the process of making an Area Codes of Germany map for the first 2 digits. Thanks for the tips as well Harrier. They were really helpful.
You're welcome BirdPie. Happy that you found it useful! 😁
nice video. i made a video about a strategy for germany too. Its called the district strategy. I think that it is actually the best strategy for Germany, but you have to know every urban district in germany. definetly gonna make a video about postal codes too.
Thank you! And nice one, that's one of the things I want to tick off learning too. :)
@@HarrierGeoGuessr yeah its not that hard i learned every urban district in like less than a day so if you're gonna learn this you will most likely win against every other player in germany
While concrete prefabricated buildings are common throughout Germany, and some single ones can be found even in small towns, while most cities about 100,000 inhabitants and above will have at least one "Großwohnsiedlung" with only them, the ones shown are exclusively in East Germany, however there also about everywhere in cities and larger towns and not only Berlin or Schwerin. Western styles look a lot different, usually with each appartment having a large balcony extending far beyond the door leading to it. Also the symmetrical double windows are rather uncommon in the west. There it is usually a large and a small part, splitting the window 2:1 thirds the size.
Street quality is not an indicator anymore, some people even say road surface has become worse in the west than in the east due to the flow of tax money into the east for a long time. But what can be said with larger precision is materials. Concrete like in the picture is pretty much uncommon in the west, where except for some multi-storey parking decks around such large residential building you should always find tarmac surfaces or small concrete made paving stones (usually 10 x 20 cm or so) in parking lots and for sure tarmac on about every street. In rural areas of the east you might even still find cobblestone occasionally.
Brick is also common more south along the western border. I live close to Cologne in a street with 22 houses, 3 of which are plastered. The rest is red brick, and the same applies for about every street in every village around here.
Thanks so much for sharing Mirko! Very useful info and thanks for going into more depth with the architecture here. Will definetly keep this in mind :)
Wow, you've all made such fast work of this!
Haha yes, been looking forward to new Germany coverage for a long time 😄
I'd like to add something about poor road quality. There is poor road quality and poor road quality . In the former GDR part of Germany (the East) you often have the Plattenbau architecture and assorted "Plattenbau architecture roads" . Think Eastern European cities . In the west poor roads ofter were good roads that broke down and got patch repaired.
Thanks for sharing! And yeah I guess using both clues together really helps confirm the area :)
What's the mapping tool you're using? Seen it before, but don't know the name.
map-making.app/ - Sry for late reply :)
Legend! Thanks Harrier. ~ Pardalote
You're welcome 😁
great video
Thank you for this
You're welcome Sebastien :)
thanks
You're welcome man :)
Me when i'm on the autobahn playing moving and they add a movement glitch:
🤮🤢😬🙄😵💫🙁😕😮😱😰😧
Thanks a lot for the tips! Could you please link the place name suffixes map? it doesn't seem to be linked in the description. Thanks!
Thank you Polly, and I have updated the description. Should be working now :)
@@HarrierGeoGuessr ♥
Regarding your profile picture: Why a barn swallow and not a hen/marsh harrier?😅
Just haven't changed it haha. Had a rule back in the day is I only use stuff as a profile image if I took the image myself. Unfortunately I have no decent images of a Hen Harrier. Maybe a change in the future :)
Those places with polish sounding names used to be polish until the Teutonic Order did a whole lot of baltic crusading.
that is simply not true. None of modern germany was ever polish. Exept you think all slavic people are poles which czechs and everybody else will deny. Many Regions actually sought protection from poland and therefore joined the HRE. Which is why f.e. lords of slavic origin ruled mecklenburg until 1919. Please don't BS complicated historic processes with your nationalism.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostsiedlung
@@holgerlinke98 okay, polish is the wrong term. Correction:
The region used to be ruled by slavic pagans and it still shows in the names of towns.
@@naphackDT it Shows names because they assimilated largely without issues. Unlike what Poland did.
Since when is the like button glowing in rainbow colors when it's mentioned in the video 😂
Lmao. We'll take it.
Viral go viral yess
That would be nice for sure, fingers crossed!
hellooo theree :)
Jonathan Kenobi :)