2023-10-03 07:12:22
Opinion Kalauer as a campaign
Everyone is laughing – at Brandenburg
Brandenburg wants to draw attention to itself nationwide as a holiday destination – with a marketing campaign under the self-deprecating motto: “Beautiful places don’t need beautiful names”. But the hackneyed jokes about places like Ranzig, Kackrow or Kotzen are not well received.
As of: 07:12 a.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
By Kira Hanser
responsible editor travel/style/engine
The operators of the “Gasthof Ranzig” have always been used to jokes about the name
Quelle: Patrick Pleul/dpa/picture-alliance
Anyone who lives in Ranzig, a pretty village in Lower Lusatia, constantly has to listen to stupid sayings. From cyclists on the Spree cycle path, from bathers and campers at Ranziger See, also from travelers on the federal highway 87 from Lübben to Frankfurt/Oder, which runs through the middle of the town. Many of them smile and take photos of the town sign as well as the flagship of the excellent country butcher shop “Vom Ranziger” on Ranziger Hauptstrasse or the fittingly tattered sign of “Gasthof Ranzig”.
Innkeeper Eckhard Henkel, 74, can only smile at such jokes. He’s known the jokes about the shabby place name all his life, because he’s a real rancid. To be precise: his family had heard such teasing from their guests since the 17th century. He says she ran the “Gasthof Ranzig” for more than ten generations. Does it smell spoiled here, is something rotten here, is the butter definitely not rancid? Haha.
The village name has nothing to do with anything corrupt. According to linguistic research, the name is derived from the Old Sorbian word “vron”, meaning a place where there were ravens. Over the centuries, “Wronzck” first became “Rantzig” and then Ranzig.
Many people are embarrassed by the Brandenburg campaign
Actually, the old wordplay farce would have already been put to rest, but the Brandenburg state government of all people recently brought it back out of the mothballs with a celebratory climax on the Day of German Unity. The current marketing campaign runs under the self-deprecating motto: “Beautiful places don’t need beautiful names” in order to draw attention to Brandenburg as a holiday destination nationwide. The aim is to present the advantages of the state in a “compact” and “in the usual humorous way”.
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As expected, the State Chancellery in Potsdam has picked out the biggest thigh-thumpers among the place names in the state: Ranzig is right at the top of the list of hardships, in a row with Brandenburg places such as Kackrow, Pitschen-Pickel, Motzen and Kotzen or also Sauen and Sargleben.
The village of Kotzen was first mentioned in 1352 under the name Cozym
Source: Soeren Stache/dpa/picture alliance
But that’s not all: the respective local leaders also have to take part in order to “carry the idea into the country,” as the campaign says. And they put on a good face about the silly idea from Potsdam and diligently like the trite jokes so that the tourists come rushing in: Saugut in Sauen! Not a nail in the coffin in Sargleben! Bumping around in Rancid!
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Everyone laughs – but not at the corny humor, but at Brandenburg. Many residents simply find the campaign embarrassing. Their comments range from “stupid” to “negative advertising, so old-fashioned and unfriendly”. Self-deprecation can definitely backfire.
Ranziger Eckhard Henkel doesn’t care about any of that. He now only runs a guesthouse and has since closed the restaurant due to the lack of a successor in the family. An old “Gasthof Ranzig” sign is now allowed to rot.
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