Gasse und Straße als Grundwörter in frühen deutschen Straßennamen

Abstract

Although the handbooks unanimously maintain that -gasse was the second element in compound medieval streetnames in the High German area of Southern and Central Germany, whereas -strate was the predominant second element in streetnames in the Low German area of Northern Germany, a closer look at Regensburg and Vienna documents surprisingly reveals that at least in these important South German cities -straße and not -gasse was the generic in the earliest German streetnames. It was only from the late 15th century onwards that -gasse began to replace -straße in Regensburg and Vienna. Later, in the 19th century, the word Gasse was connected with the idea of a narrow, unimportant street and therefore -gasse again made way for -straße, at least in Regensburg. An overview over the German-speaking area shows that in medieval documents -straße predominated along the river Danube, whereas in South-Western Germany and Switzerland as well as in Central Germany -gasse was favoured. The early appearance of -straße in Cologne and Leipzig is seen as the result of an influence of the more prestigious Low German -strate area.