essen

~ / kihaku / trips / in-alle-himmelsrichtungen / wessreis-2022 / essen

Myself-proclaimed German capital of dad jokes

The city of Essen, the center of enormous Ruhrgebiet, the shopping capital of the area etc., but for me it's also an important point of my imaginary map of dad jokes. For context, essen means to eat in German, so… yeah, you get the idea.

But you might (or might not) be surprised that this isn't the real etymology of the name. According to the Wikipedia, the oldest known form of the city's name is Astnide, which changed to Essen by way of forms such as Astnidum, Assinde, Essendia and Esnede. The name Astnide may have referred either to a region where many ash trees were found or to a region in the East (of the Frankish Empire). The Old High German word for fireplace, Esse, is also commonly mentioned due to the industrial history of the city, but is highly unlikely since the old forms of the city name originate from times before industrialization.

It also has a really interesting Stadtbahn and tram system, it actually was looking quite deserted (but I visited it on the Pfingstensonntag, that is the Sunday of the Pentecost (in Germany it's not just a free day, but a Easter-like freetime, with Monday being a holiday as well – Pfingstenmontag) and I was my first time in the city.

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