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29. 07. 09. - 14:30

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29. 07. 09. - 14:30

Leave us alone, F*cking community mayor pleads

By Thomas Hochwarter

The Mayor of a community called Fucking has said residents want to be "left in peace" after they once again made international headlines.

Fucking, a 100-people community which is part of the Upper Austrian town of Tarsdorf, has become an international sensation because of its name.

It has had 15 place name signs stolen in recent years by visitors and residents say dozens of buses packed with "tourists" regularly visit the town to have their picture taken next to the place name sign.

But Mayor Franz Meindl told Austrian Times: "We don’t find it funny. We just want to be left alone."

"There are all these stories all the time – especially in summer. Everybody writes what they want," the People’s Party (ÖVP) mayor added.

He pledged: "Just leave us alone. We don’t harm anyone and just want to live in peace."

Asked what he thought of the international fascination with the town’s name, he said: "I really don’t know. It is just the usual spelling of the word. I’m sure I would find many town names in Britain or somewhere else which sound funny when they are pronounced in German."

And he said he would not consider changing the community’s name. He said: "There is nothing funny in the name to us and therefore I see no reason to change it. If other people laugh about it, there is nothing we can do. But we pronounce it differently in our dialect and it was never funny in any way."

Mayor Meindl also rejected suggestions the community may have benefitted economically from people coming to see the signs.

"I haven’t heard of a publican who had more guests because of the hype," he said.

Austrian Times

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