Google Street View in Germany
Friday, 19th November 2010 by James Turnbull
After years of wrangling and debate over the privacy issues, Street View images are finally available for 20 of Germany's largest cities.
To secure release of the images Google had to allow Germans to opt-out of having their house on the street view, so they've manually blurred hundreds of streets.
As is traditional, the German Googlers took to the streets to welcome the Street View car to their country with cheerleaders, signs and giant stuffed animal-things. However, in Germany, even Google employees get their faces blurred.
Around 3% of Germany's property owners opted out of the service, including a tenant in the same building as Google's Munich office, meaning that even their building had to be blurred out.
But there's still many things to be found on German Street View, including the world's largest Euro symbol, a protest of some sort and the fourth tallest freestanding structure in Europe.
I'm sure there will be even more interesting things spotted in Germany over the next few days so make sure you follow our Twitter account for the latest findings.
the protest is against the clearing of a squat: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,663449,00.html
Here’s some of the most recognizable German sights in the streetview update: http://www.traveltoplists.com/2010/11/streetview-tourist-in-germany-part-2/
Germany DOES have more sights than just Berlin and Munich …
The former Bundeshaus in Bonn, where parliament sat before reunification and the move to Berlin: View Placemark,,0,0.26&ll=50.718016,7.123421&spn=0.004966,0.017735&z=17
The Schwebebahn in Wuppertal (you did a post a while back … but now visible in Streetview): View Placemark,,0,0.05&ll=51.261969,7.173705&spn=0.001227,0.004434&z=19
The old townhall and market church in Hannover: View Placemark,,0,-15.96&ll=52.371271,9.736813&spn=0.000299,0.001108&z=21
St. Michael’s church (the Michel) in Hamburg: View Placemark,,0,-17.49&ll=53.549897,9.977766&spn=0.00937,0.03547&z=16
Warehouses in the free harbour in Hamburg: View Placemark,,0,-3.11&ll=53.543518,9.990001&spn=0.004686,0.017735&z=17
Bismarck gazing sternly towards ‘perfidious Albion’: View Placemark,,2,-11.2&ll=53.54746,9.971273&spn=0.004685,0.017735&z=17
I love the centre of Leipzig – they’re setting up a Weihnachtsmarkt: View Placemark,,0,-1.72
Please get the Celle area, was there in the 1950’s and loved it and would love to see my old haunts. Never know, might see my first true love again. brian