Kiez
Sign in to savethumb|Stephankiez in Berlin-Moabit Kiez () (also: Kietz) is a German word for a city neighbourhood, a relatively small community within a larger town. The word is mainly used in Berlin and northern Germany. Similar quarters are called Veedel in Cologne and Grätzl in Vienna. The more standard German term for a neighborhood in the sense of "where one lives" is Viertel ('quarter').
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Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
- Original meaning and etymology
- Modern meaning
- References
thumb|Stephankiez in Berlin-Moabit Kiez () (also: Kietz) is a German word for a city neighbourhood, a relatively small community within a larger town. The word is mainly used in Berlin and northern Germany. Similar quarters are called Veedel in Cologne and Grätzl in Vienna. The more standard German term for a neighborhood in the sense of "where one lives" is Viertel ('quarter').
==Original meaning and etymology== The word Kietz originated in the time of the eastward expansion of German settlers in the Middle Ages into West Slavic territories (Germania Slavica), when in many places both communities existed side by side. The word is possibly of Slavic origin (compare Slovak chyža 'hut, cottage', cf. Kessinians) and referred to a Slavic settlement (typically of fishermen) near a German town. Some placenames are reminiscent of this meaning, for example Küstrin-Kietz or the Kietz quarter of Berlin-Köpenick.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Kiez” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.