A rare street sign from the Austrian village of ‘Fucking’ which changed its name to Fugging because they kept being stolen is going on display at a museum in Vienna.
Fucking village drew a huge amount of unwanted attention ever since it was first discovered by American soldiers across the border in Germany, and made frequent trips are to be photographed and later visitors started pinching the street signs.
The unwanted attention annoyed locals so much that they changed the name and has been known as Fugging since late last year after a vote by residents in the village which is in the Austrian municipality of Tarsdorf.
Andrea Holzner, Mayor of Tarsdorf, told local media: “We were not impressed by the stress and unwanted attention surrounding the place name for a long time.”
She added: “With the increasing popularity of social media channels and the hunt for the best video and the funniest photo by bloggers, there have been massive violations of the privacy of our locals over the past few years.”
After changing the name of the village to ‘Fugging’ Holzner claims that peace was restored to the local community as the interest of online pranksters tailed off.
With the new name came a new sign and the Mayor decided that it would be best to donate the last “Fucking” sign to the Contemporary History Museum on Vienna’s Heldenplatz.
The sign went on display on Sunday (5th September), Monika Sommer, the director of the museum, said: “This place-name sign brings a very current piece of history to the museum.”
She added: ” The sign is symbolic of how social media is now being used to attract attention to new forms of art.”
Not everyone in the village of ‘Fugging’ is happy about the name change and the removal of the signs that went viral last year.
According to Holzner, a petition has been launched under the title ‘Make Fucking Great Again’ by a group of local churchgoers who are not pleased with the village’s new name and sign.
The ‘Make Fucking Great Again’ petition is demanding that the village returns to its roots with its old name and sign.
The Mayor declined to comment on the demands of the ‘Make Fucking Great Again’ petition as most of the community are happy to have their quiet lives back, and the matter is therefore resolved.
