The Kirchweih (annual fair) in Fürth takes over the whole town centre. The City Center shopping centre nearly wasn’t built because the entrance to the underground car park would have had to be blocked for 12 days once a year, but someone hit on the idea of a special traffic light and lane. There are temporary road markings all round the town during the Kirchweih and it’s not advisable to drive there if you don’t know your way around.

A German article in the Fürther Nachrichten reports that the law firm of Bauer and Neuhof (they haven’t even got a website) actually applied for an injunction to remove the mobile lavatory parked outside their offices. Apparently they backed down when it was moved by 2.5 metres. There’s a photograph in the article showing the situation.

bq. „Abgesehen vom Geruch sahen wir das auch als optische Belästigung und als Eingriff in den laufenden Gewerbebetrieb, denn so etwas ist ja nicht gerade einladend“, erklärt Neuhof, …

bq. (“Apart from the smell, we also saw it as a visual nuisance and as an intervention in our day-to-day business, because a thing like that isn’t exactly inviting,” says Neuhof,…)

Their offices are in a very elegant building, but obviously the visual aspect of 12 days’ Kirchweih in driving clients away had escaped me. The upshot is that the mayor would have voluntarily appeared in court to represent the interests of the people at the fair, and next year the toilets will be elsewhere, and their place will be taken by a caravan (why am I disappointed?). Other objections of this nature will not be tolerated.