Guten Tag! Have you ever wondered whether Germany holds any records for anything? Well, here’s one – Germany is home to the narrowest street in the world!

By kathrin_gaisser – originally posted to Flickr as engste Straße der Welt, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9405105

According to Guinness World Records, the world’s narrowest street is located in Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is called Spreuerhofstraße, and here are its measurements:

die Breite (width):

at its narrowest: einunddreißig Zentimeter (31 cm)

at its widest: fünfzig Zentimeter (50 cm)

die Länge (length):

3,8 Meter lang
3.8m long

Spreuerhofstraße is located between two Häuser (houses). It was reconstructed in 1727 after a fire destroyed the city in 1726. There is nothing to see in Spreuerhofstraße except the Wände (walls) of the two houses it lies between. The street signs at either end of Spreuerhofstraße read, in both German and English:

‘Engste Straße der Welt* – Narrowest street in the world’

Opinion on Spreuerhofstraße is mixed, with some saying it’s barely a street and should be called an alley, instead:

die Straße – street
die Gasse – alley

Spreuerhofstraße has even been in danger of losing its world record title due to a leaning wall from one of the houses restricting movement as you walk down it. If the street becomes too eng (narrow) to walk down, it can no longer be called die Engste Straße der Welt. However, as far as I can tell – correct me if I am wrong! – it has not lost its title yet.

Spreuerhofstraße is an important tourist attraction for Reutlingen, with tourists from all over the world visiting to walk down the street and take photos next to the street sign.

Image via Pixabay

Reviews on Tripadvisor are greatly mixed, with some saying, ‘muss man einfach sehen!’ (‘absolutely a must-see!’), and others calling the street ‘eine Zeitverschwendung’ (‘a waste of time’).

What’s your opinion? Do these kinds of tourist attractions interest you when you travel? And if you went to Reutlingen, would you seek out die Engste Straße der Welt?

If you enjoyed this post, you might like this one about Viscardigasse, Munich!

Bis bald (see you soon)!
Constanze

*Note: The word ‘engste’ is capitalised on the street sign because ‘Engste Straße der Welt’ is a name/title. In a regular sentence, the word ‘engste’ (‘narrowest’) would not be capitalised.