Residents restore Miesbach stream name after online mapping error

For years, online maps incorrectly identified the stream running through the Upper Bavarian town of Miesbach as the Thalerbach or Talerbach, BR reported. A local team has now restored the stream’s correct name on Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Google Maps and the Bayernatlas.

The Miesbach stream has not dried up or disappeared. However, it was no longer searchable under its traditional name, despite the town being named after it.

Miesbach city councillor Markus Baumgärtner said the error was already recorded in 2014 in the water register of the Bavarian State Office for the Environment. The incorrect name apparently spread from there to online mapping services and Wikipedia. The Thalerbach is actually only a small stream that flows into the Miesbach farther upstream.

Baumgärtner joined forces with city curator Alexander Langheiter and regional residents to investigate the name. Langheiter has been seeking an official correction since 2024, speaking with families who have long lived beside the stream. They said they were also surprised that it had suddenly been given another name.

City councillor and software developer Bernhard Hering later joined the effort, tracing how the incorrect information had spread online. He said internet mapping services were interconnected and often copied information from one another. Over three months, he corrected the entries on Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap and Google Maps. Horst Garstka supported him with the OpenStreetMap changes.

The correct name is now also recorded in the Bayernatlas, and the Miesbach officially flows through the town again. Baumgärtner said the Thalerbach is only 30 to 40 centimetres wide.

The team also established the name of another tributary. The stream had been listed online only as Bacherl, but conversations with residents near its source confirmed that it is called the Erlbach. That name has also been officially restored.