Google Maps mistakenly renames Berlin square after Hitler

[News_Editor]

BERLIN, GERMANY (BNO NEWS) -- Internet search giant Google apologized on Friday after a user edit on its mapping service was mistakenly approved to rename a major square in the German capital of Berlin to "Adolf Hitler Platz," the name it was given after the Nazi Party leader became chancellor.

The name of Theodor-Heuss-Platz was changed to Adolf-Hitler-Platz on late Thursday evening when a user edit on Google Map Maker was mistakenly approved. The name was visible for several hours, prompting outrage on social networking websites and in German media, before the mistake was corrected.

"To make our maps as accurate and user-friendly as possible, all user edits in Mapmaker are reviewed either by the community of mapping volunteers or Google moderators," said Lena Wagner, a spokeswoman for Google Germany. "In this particular case the change in the street name was mistakenly approved, and we fixed it as soon as we were made aware. We apologize for any offence caused."

The square is located west of Berlin's inner city and was named Reichskanzlerplatz (Chancellor's Square) after its construction began in 1904, but it was named after Hitler less than three months after he became chancellor in January 1933. The square regained its initial name in the summer of 1947 until it was named after German President Theodor Heuss in December 1963.

Adolf-Hitler-Platz was supposed to play a prominent role in Hitler's planned overhaul of Berlin into a "global capital" named "Germania."

(Copyright 2014 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected].)

[Scott]

Freudian slip, perhaps?

[marcusd]

Hahaha. Big oops here

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[willyumiii]

I noticed when flying on Asiana Air and Cathay air lines that they still refer to Ho Chi Min City as Saigon.

Are they in denial?

Just thought it was interesting some 30 some years after the name change!

Edited January 12, 2014 by willyumiii

[mopar71]

The name "Adolf Hitler" probably just wasn't recognized by the tech savvy, history-challenged youngster approving the editing. Now if it had been named Angry Bird Platz...

Edited January 14, 2014 by mopar71

[A1Str8]

It's interesting how small things always cause outrage. It was just a mistake. Get over it.

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[Ajaan]

I noticed when flying on Asiana Air and Cathay air lines that they still refer to Ho Chi Min City as Saigon.

Are they in denial?

Just thought it was interesting some 30 some years after the name change!

The antagonism between North and South Vietnam waaaaay predates the hostilities which came to a boil in the wars there (and that previous antagonism has nothing to do with "communism"). HCM City was something imposed on the South by the victorious North. It's not really that surprising that to this day, the government folks are really the only ones who use that name.

[Chicog]

It's interesting how small things always cause outrage. It was just a mistake. Get over it. Sent from my GT-I9500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Unfortunately, the Blue Suede Shoes need little excuse to get all worked up. They seem to feel we should all feel guilty for Hitler's crimes, even though in many cases our relatives gave their lives removing him from power.

That's why they get on my tits with their constant whinging.