Tourists checking out the route to the next Berlin monument could have been forgiven for thinking their Google Maps app had taken them back in time.
Google has now apologised after it temporarily mislabeled a square in central Berlin with its Nazi-era name: Adolf Hitler Platz - and a screengrab went viral on social media.
The square, in the western Charlottenburg district of Berlin, is now Theodor Heuss Platz, named after the liberal first president of post-war Federal Republic of Germany, rather than a genocidal maniac.
It was originally called Reichskanzlerplatz when it was constructed in the early 1900, but in 1933 it was renamed after the new German Chancellor. Unsurprisingly, that rapidly became unpopular after the Nazi defeat.
Many tweeted their shock and surprise:
Google spokeswoman Lena Wagner said that the location was only re-labeled for a few hours before it was removed.
“We were made aware of a false and inappropriate street name on Google Maps and corrected it immediately,” she said, but offered no explanation for the error.