German place names

German place names - names of geographical objects containing German-speaking formants . Most often, outside the German-speaking territories, they indicate the presence of German colonies. In Russia, German place names can indicate imitation of German culture at the beginning of the XVIII century : Shlisselburg ( 1702 ), St. Petersburg ( 1703 ), Kronstadt ( 1704 ), Peterhof (1705), Yekaterinburg ( 1723 ) and Orenburg ( 1734 ).

German place names, as a rule, have two roots. The first root can mean color: black (schwartz-), white ( vice -) or green (grun-). The second root can mean a mountain (- berg ), forest (- wald ), field (-feld), stream (-bach) or valley (-tal). For example, Königsberg (“royal mountain”), Black Forest (“black forest”) or Grunwald (“green forest”), Rosenfeld (“pink meadow”), Rosenbach (“pink stream”) and Rosenenthal (“pink valley”).

The most common oikonyms . The second root in them indicates the courtyard (-hof), the village (- dorf ), the fortress (-burg), the city (-stadt) or the bridge ( brugge ). The first root may indicate a proper name. Karlsdorf , Karlsburg or Karlstadt derivatives are derived from the German name Karl , and Marienhof , Mariendorf , Marienburg are derived from the common Christian name Maria .

Often the oikonyms contain an indication of the time old (alt) or new (neuen): Altstadt ("old city") and Neuenburg ("new castle")

There are monobasic oikonyms that end in -au: for example, Grünau .