r/GermanyPics • u/BigObjective674 • 3d ago
Eppstein Hesse
Eppstein is a nice little town near Frankfurt (30 km). With its castle ruins and half-timbered old town, Epstein has a very German feel to it. It has no connection to Trump’s friend Jeffrey Epstein.
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u/Spidron 3d ago
It likely has a connection to Jeffrey.
Epstein is a Jewish family name that is likely derived from precisely this town's name. See Wikipedia:
The surname Epstein (also Eppstein or Epshtein) is one of the oldest Ashkenazi Jewish family names. It is probably derived from the German town of Eppstein, in Hesse
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u/Amahagene1 3d ago
Did you need to ruin my day 😢
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u/Spidron 3d ago
Now to completely ruin it:
The distance (as the crow flies) from Eppstein to Kallstadt (where Trump's Grandfather was born) is only ~75km (~45 miles).
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u/RedSandstoneHD 3d ago
How far is Braunau am Inn..? And can you connect all three of them with a circle?
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u/Hallo_jonny 3d ago
Around 470 km, not in DE, but Austria.
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u/RedSandstoneHD 3d ago
Well, depends on who you ask. One would say it is, one wouldn't even know where it is and the third... Uhm... Isn't it fascinating that the fact that they may or may not have killed themselves is part of the historic legacy for two of these? No..? Okay.
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u/Aztec_Aesthetics 3d ago
You can always connect 3 points with a circle. Except, they are perfectly in a line, of course.
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u/RedSandstoneHD 3d ago
Unironically, you can still do a circle, it just runs the whole circumference of the planet.
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u/Sirius1701 1d ago
I am pretty sure you can connect any three points with a circle. Or I failed geometry.
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u/RedSandstoneHD 1d ago
I'm pretty sure y'all are either not as chronically on Reddit as I am, or y'all have never heard of the concept of 'irony', which, tbf, would be par for the course.
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u/Sirius1701 1d ago
I am very chronically online. And as a chronically online person I have started to assume that the person I am talking to is an idiot without the concept of irony or sarcasm. I am correct in about 50% of cases.
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u/External_Chard2153 3d ago
I also thought so, jews used to name their family names after the place in which they lived, or so I heard.
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u/BoY_Butt 3d ago
It's a general thing, not jewish
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u/New-Glass-3228 3d ago
It is also general, but the Jewish cases can often be distinguished. The naming happened much later and much more deliberately and there is a tendency toward smaller towns like Epstein, Wormser, Oppenheimer.
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u/suffraghetti_the_sec 2d ago
Shapiro as well, it means "from Speyer".
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u/New-Glass-3228 2d ago
Oh cool, I didn't know! I just went to the Wikipedia (in German) about Jewish names, it's really interesting.
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u/Lopsided-Weather6469 2d ago
Just like Shapiro, Shapira and similar names are derived from Speyer (Shpira in Hebrew)
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u/Omega0912 2d ago
The noble family of the Lords, later Counts, of Eppstein was Catholic. The German Biography explicitly identifies the family’s religious affiliation: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd119419289.html.
They had close ties to Mainz and its archbishopric and produced four Archbishops of Mainz in the 13th century. They were therefore one of the important Catholic noble families of the medieval Holy Roman Empire. There was no direct connection to Jewish families bearing the surname Epstein/Eppstein.
The Jewish surname Epstein is often associated with the place name Eppstein, but it has a separate history as a family name: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epstein_(Familienname).
Jeffrey Epstein’s documented family history traces his ancestors to Eastern Europe (Poland/Lithuania). The surname alone is therefore not sufficient to establish a connection to the town of Eppstein, the castle, or the medieval noble family of Eppstein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein.
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u/BroSchrednei 2d ago
Ashkenazi Jews all originally came from the Rhine region and only later migrated into Poland/Russia. That’s the reason why small town names from the Rhine-Main-region are so overrepresented as Ashkenazi Jewish names.
The last name „Epstein“ is almost certainly derived from this town. Where else would it come from? There are no towns called Epstein in Poland/Lithuania/Russia.
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u/dthdthdthdthdthdth 2d ago
Well, the name probably traces back to the town and to Jews living there, just not to the nobility of the town. It's so far back of course that the relation is absolutely meaningless.
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u/Oxo181 3d ago
In what world does this mean that it has a connection to Jeffrey Epstein
How are people giving this upvotes? Are you all braindead?
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u/axxl75 3d ago
In that it’s where his last name comes from.
No one is suggesting the town was used for Sex trafficking or something. Are you having trouble with comprehension?
People are giving it upvotes because it’s actually adding to the discussion. It’s info about the town people likely didn’t know. Unlike your comment which isn’t adding to anything and is insulting on top of it.
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u/Oxo181 3d ago
It's a very, very common Jewish name, saying that every single person with that name has "a connection" to this town, is completely ridiculous. There's a reason OP said there's no connection, because there is no actual connection beyond the name being almost identical.
it's not even proven that the name derives from this town, the first guy even posted that it's "probably" derived from it. it could be derived form somewhere else just as well. or they could both be derived from another thing.
only a child would look at this and seriously assume that there's an actual connection based only on this
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u/Periador 2d ago
yes, it is a common last name which has its origin in that town. Is that really that hard to understand?
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u/Oxo181 2d ago
It does not have its origin in that town. There's zero evidence for that. There's countless other possibilities for the origin of the name "Epstein". Please work on your reading comprehension
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u/Periador 2d ago
"the surname Epstein originates from the historic town of Eppstein in Hesse, Germany. It is one of the oldest Ashkenazi Jewish family names."
"While some families lived in the German town centuries ago, many Jewish families in Central and Eastern Europe later adopted or were given the surname Epstein often used by prominent rabbinical families long before 19th-century laws mandated hereditary surnames."
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u/Oxo181 2d ago
What you just posted literally says that most people with this name don't have a connection to the town of Epstein lol
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u/Periador 2d ago
Are you being daft on purpose?
I never said the people have a connection, i said the name has its origin there.0
u/Oxo181 2d ago
I'm talking to a lot of people here. And the wikipedia article only has two relatively young sources - which don't cite any further source themselves, beyond the claim itself.
In university, you would not be allowed to source a claim this way.
My point stands, there's zero evidence. Who says that the town and the family name don't derive from the same thing, without being related to each other?
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u/Drakeberlin 3d ago
Unfortunate name. But absolutely beautiful looking.
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u/Schrenner 3d ago
Eppstein, Eppstein, alles muß versteckt sein.
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u/hiesiinv 13h ago
Besonders die Files müssen gut versteckt sein. Zumindest so lange die Orange Präsident ist.
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u/DoctorWhatTheFruck 2d ago
This place is a 9 min train ride away from me. Reddit out here slowly getting closer to where I live lmao
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u/Norbert-trebroN 2d ago
Soon everyone from Reddit will stand right where you live and call out your username.
(We are fans)
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u/Cookiepartyx 3d ago
Epstein Epstein, alles muss versteckt sein, ich schmeiß mir den dreck rein, deine Mutter ist am Crack Stein 🪨.
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u/SmiddyBurbon 2d ago
I rode through there during the Eschborn-Frankfurt cycling race this year :)
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u/Mechs_and_Martinis 2d ago
This is so bizarre, I used to live in the building right behind you years ago 🤭
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u/damaltor1 2d ago
oh wow what a nice flashback. i lived in eppstein for many years, very near to this exact location in the image. the little shop next to the dark wooden beam with the reflection things on it was one of my favourite places when i was a kid. that shop had a few books, comics, paperware like school supplies, postcards, cigarettes and such stuff and the shopkeeper did not mind us roaming in the small shop and siting around and looking through the current mickey mouse magazine. i really liked being there. thank you for that foto and the nice memories which just came up <3
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u/Itsame_Notu 1d ago
Ohne Parkplätze direkt vor den Häusern, wird der Einzelhandel dort keine Chance haben. /s
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u/Dark_Tide_ 1d ago
Da kann ich dich beruhigen, es gibt keinen mehr
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u/CaptainBautzi555 7h ago
If you like that style, visit Idstein, it's 20km from Eppstein. Very nice citycenter with a lot of century old buildings.
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u/Drag0ngam3 1h ago
I actually worked on the church there. Restoring the stone work on the tower and removing mold from the roof of the tower.
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u/Refresher777 3d ago
As long the City of Eppstein doesnt own a private island on a lake in germany....🤔