Why the Unnamed Streets of Mannheim, Germany’s Town Square Really Confuses Map Apps

In a puzzling episode of Amazing Places, host Tom Scott explains the system of identification for the blocks within the Quadratestadt (Town Square) of Mannheim, Germany, how this came to be in a country that otherwise uses more traditional means of street naming and how this system really confuses map apps like Google Maps, Apple Maps and OpenStreetMap.

None of the modern mapping companies know what to do with this. They’d be fine if the whole country ran on a different system but mixing and matching in the same area in a region that, as far as most people know just doesn’t do this …Google and Microsoft get confused and give each road multiple names. Apple insists that each road has just one name and they’re entirely wrong … OpenStreetMaps which is community-led, recognises full addresses but not the individual blocks.