I'm sitting in the Hofbräuhaus in Munich and just noticed that the signs for the bathroom are a symbol of a man and woman with a "00".
Why is this the case?
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50I'm tempted to say its the noughty room, but that pun only works in English.– CriggieCommented Jun 24, 2016 at 0:11
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3It might be worth noting that this is not the most commonly used term/symbol for bathrooms in Germany. I've never actually seen it on a sign (although I've heard people call it that, mostly people one or two generations older than me). Most signs will say "WC" or simply "Toiletten" or will just use the woman/man pictograms. (This may differ across various German regions though.)– Martin EnderCommented Jun 24, 2016 at 11:09
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For some reason many explanations I found tell you that this is used all over Europe but in my experience there are really few such signs.– neoCommented Jun 24, 2016 at 13:04
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It actually says "Pooh" but someone has vandalised the P and H.– Graham BorlandCommented Jun 24, 2016 at 23:56
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1@GrahamBorland: Pooh is for bears. Poo and Poop are for toilets.– hippietrailCommented Aug 11, 2016 at 9:15
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3 Answers
According to the legend this tradition was started by hotels in the 19th century. Unlike today there was a single bathroom for a whole floor. This room was at the beginning of the hallway and not a real guest room. Hoteliers therefore used the room number "00".
Other common explanations include the shape of an opened toilet seat but as far as I know that question has not been finally settled yet. The hotel explanation seems like the most likely one.
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13If anyone knows a better source than a dictionary, articles by public broadcasters, or web forums I will be grateful to hear. My (not so long) search for some trustworthy books was unsuccessful.– neoCommented Jun 23, 2016 at 19:12
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2The urban legend I mostly heard was that it was started by people ordering the same amount of digits for the doors, but since they did not write 1,2,3 as 01, 02, 03 etc. they had too many 0s left, and thus used them for these doors on the floor...– PlasmaHHCommented Jun 24, 2016 at 11:44
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2@neo: German Wikipedia also lists the "hotel" story; albeit unsourced.– DevSolarCommented Jun 24, 2016 at 12:59
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1@DevSolar Yes that's the story you can find everywhere. However it looks like they all copy each other and I don't know where this originally came from. Maybe I have some time this weekend to try and track this down.– neoCommented Jun 24, 2016 at 13:03
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1@neo: Sifting through the talk archive of abovementioned WP article, there is indeed a source: The 1931 movie "Emil and the Detectives" shows a character having room number 9, with the toilet numbered 00 at the same place of the door as the guest room (minutes 42 to 46 into the movie). That looks good enough for me (if true, I don't have the movie at hand).– DevSolarCommented Jun 24, 2016 at 13:05
The German children’s show die Sendung mit der Maus once talked about that. Their explanation was:
Weil da 0 arbeiten und 0 wohnen.
Because 0 work there and 0 live there.
I am aware that the explanation is a little sketchy but it was broadcasted on national TV so …
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7This sounds more like a memory hook than like an explanation. Commented Jun 25, 2016 at 10:49
It's an outhouse
Flushing toilets are marked WC
Non flushing toilets like outhouses, porta pottys and shitholes in general are marked as 00
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6Not likely in a main beer house in the city. Do you have any proof?– Willeke ♦Commented Jun 24, 2016 at 18:11
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8Plain wrong. Whether a toilet has a flush or not is irrelevant; it can be pointed to with 00 in either case. (Also, it is very rare to find non-flush toilets in guest places in Germany.)– JanCommented Jun 24, 2016 at 22:00
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12While "WC" does stand for water closet and thus refers to flushed toilets, that doesn't mean that a toilet labelled otherwise is non-flushed.– das-gCommented Jun 24, 2016 at 22:09