The nitpicker’s guide to Trier

Recently numerous signs have been put up all over the city centre to point out smaller monuments to the visitor – and to the resident. Amongst them there is one at the Herrenbrünnchen, a monument which is otherwise easily overlooked. The English translation calls it “The Lord’s Little Fountain.” This, of course, is somehow “right”, but at the same time quite wrong. The reason why it is called what it is called is that the city councillors, the Stadtherren, so to speak, used to meet here socially in early modern times and enjoy a glass of wine or two. Although there are earlier mythological connections, it was not a fountain dedicated to the Lord, i.e. to God. The French translation actually does the same. At the AVG, an old grammar school in the city centre, the sign says that this building used to be a cloister. Again, this is not what is meant. It used to be a monastery, not a cloister, although the monastery may well have included a cloister. Finally, the Landesmuseum makes this claim: “We let history come back to life.” This is a laudable proposal, but is it English? Wouldn’t you say “We make history come back to life”, or rather “We bring history back to life”, or rather something completely different?