Need a German-sounding name for a prison camp.

What the title says. =P The story is steampunk, and the facility in question is an evil hospital/prison for the very worst of criminals. Think combination of Alcatraz and Auschwitz.

I just...don't know German at all. :-) It's even fine if the names don't exactly sound German...but I would like a name that sort of makes you immediately think that it's a sinister place.

Dachmannhausen

Completely made up.

You can always 'germanize' a name by adding -stedt, -hausen or -berg at the end (think 'Hogan's Heroes' :-) )

Burgstedt (made up, too, I hope!)

Kampfhausen.

I actually did German for three years. Not sure if its actually written properly, hut 'kampf' means struggle and 'haus' means house, so I added one and one. Yay memory lol

Choose a German castle and use that.

Colditz Castle would be a real world example. It was where the Germans kept the Allied prisoners that had repeatedly escaped from other prisons.

Since you mention Auschwitz, most military compounds are named for the town they are closest to. If you don't like that approach, there is also history of naming things in the most pleasant sounding way as possible.

For example in my Horror Novel set in Vietnam-war era Bavarian Germany. An american soldier is stationed to a recreation facility in the german alps, this facility is now run as a cooperative facility between many nations. However the building was originally a Insane Asylum, then the Nazis took the building during WW2 and used it for high altitude and cold weather experimentation.

The name that I chose for the Facility was Bergweisse Irrenhaus. (Mountain Meadow Madhouse translated) Insane asylums have always been a place of horrible conditions but they always have the nicest sounding names.

Just my .02

Good Luck

Casey

*g*
Sorry, I won't make you to look silly but most of the suggested names doesn't sound natural.

As Casey pointed out, most such facilities are named after a town or a place. And such names tend to have very old roots and to be typical for specific regions
-hausen f.e. isn't used in northern Germany for settlements foundet before the 8th century, so you can't combine that with modern words like "Kampf" or "Dachmann" (which is a modern and irregular form of "roofer" so Dachmannhausen would be a town founded by roofers). On the other hand -stedt or -stede is used only in northern Germany, in Bavaria it's -stätt. Forms with -itz have slavian origins.

"Bergweisse" sounds like a bavarian beer. Meadows is "Wiese". And an insane asylum wouldn't be called "Irrenhaus" but "Psychiatrische Klinik" or "Psychiatrische Anstalt" (Irrenhaus isn't PC).

If you wan't something sinister I strongly suggest "Düsternbrook" (which is in real a quarter of Kiel and means dire swamp, but can be settled in northern Germany only) or - if you prefer something more southward you can take Todenhausen (sounds a like Deathmanshousing) or Schwarzenau (a place near or surrounded by black water). And if you want to make it most evident, take Not or Elend (Distress and Misery - both are real settlements in the Harz Mountains).

Quote:
Well, I don't think WWII era Germany was very PC.

Not in the way you think.
But "Irrenhaus" is a 19th century word and got out of use before the beginning of the 20th century with the development of Psychologie and Psychoanalysis. Even if the Nazis didn't accept this concept, they didn't go behind the nomenclatur.

No I don't keep the only key to anything. But actually I'm German and do know quite a lot about Germanys culture, history and language. I tend to win trivial pursuit as well.
But I won't judge about other countries by reading some novels or comics settled there.