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My question is, I'd like to meet someone at a cafe who's address is an Ufer, for example Bismarkufer. Is it incorrect to say:

Lass uns in Bismarkufer 66 treffen.

Would a different preposition be used if you wanted to meet generally on the Ufer?

Lass uns auf dem Bismarkufer treffen.

It's hard to know what prepositions to use when!

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  • I think, it should be Bismarck, with "c", at least if you mean the street "Bismarckstraße" next to the Isebekkanal in Hamburg... – Iris Nov 01 '16 at 11:15

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for Ufer you use generally "am"

Lass uns am Bismarkufer (66) treffen

BlueSalamander
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    Lass uns … treffen. isn't proper German. It has to be Lass uns einander* am Bismarckufer 66 treffen.* – Janka Nov 01 '16 at 12:38
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    @Janka "Lass uns ... treffen" is absolutely fine and more common than using "einander". – Em1 Nov 01 '16 at 13:13
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    It isn't fine but people tend to be sloppy in speech, so yes, it may be common among certain dialects and sociolects. – Janka Nov 01 '16 at 13:30
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    I would also say “lass uns uns treffen”, which may not be the stylistically best choice, but is grammatically correct. – Carsten S Nov 01 '16 at 13:37
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    Bezüglich 'lass uns uns treffen' http://german.stackexchange.com/q/3139/16660 – Iris Nov 01 '16 at 21:54
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Even if "Am Bismarckufer 66" looks like a street address (you'd normally use "in" here), the "Ufer" which is part of that address still rules the preposition, and thus in both cases you'd use "am".

Some more examples:

In der Parkstrasse

In der Schloßallee

Am Rathausplatz

Beim/Im Westbahnhof

In der Glockengasse

Am Nordstrand

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tofro
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  • I believe this is incorrect. If we are talking about actual street names (rather than made-up location descriptors), and thus addresses, the preposition is not influenced by what the street or square is called. For example, I would always answer "Wo wohnst du?" by saying "In der Parkstraße 4.", "Im Rathausplatz 8.", "Im Nordstrand 15.", and "Im Bismarckufer 16." An answer like "Ich wohne am Rathausplatz 23." would suggest to me it is not the building no. 23 that you live in, but possibly an adjacent building, or maybe no building at all (on the park bench in front ...). The only ... – O. R. Mapper Nov 01 '16 at 11:26
  • ... exception I can think of is when the street or square name literally includes the preposition, i.e. if we are not talking about streets/squares named "Rathausplatz", "Nordstrand", and "Bismarckufer", but "Am Rathausplatz", "Am Nordstrand", and "Am Bismarckufer". In that case, it does indeed seem that the preposition included in the name can overrule the semantically meaningful preposition, as using two prepositions in a row would seem awkward. On the other hand, if there is no ambiguity, it is also possible in such cases to skip the preposition included in the name. – O. R. Mapper Nov 01 '16 at 11:29
  • @O.R.Mapper I can really not imagine someone saying "wir treffen uns in Bismarckufer 21". This just sounds plain odd to me. (Same is true for "wir treffen uns in am Bismarckufer 21, regardless of what the street address is) And if I would be living "am Rathausplatz", I'd say so. I'm normally fine with being wrong, but don't think it's the case here. Is this maybe a regional thing? – tofro Nov 01 '16 at 11:47
  • I wouldn't say "in Bismarckufer 21", but "im Bismarckufer 21". Or, accordingly, "vor dem Bismarckufer 21" if my acquaintance is supposed to wait in front of the entrance. Possibly, this is used primarily in South-Western Germany, such as in Lahr ("Das Bürgerbüro im Rathausplatz 4") or Weil am Rhein ("Ort: vhespresso-Raum im Rathausplatz 3 (Eingang Hauptstraße)"). On the other ... – O. R. Mapper Nov 01 '16 at 12:09
  • ... hand, I also find this manner of referring to street names in texts referring to Berlin, such as "kurz darauf brannte ein weiteres Auto auf dem Parkplatz des Urban-Krankenhauses und noch einige Minuten später zwei Wagen im Carl-Herz-Ufer" or "Mit der Eingewöhnung in den Kindergarten im Holsteiner Ufer" (emphasis by myself). – O. R. Mapper Nov 01 '16 at 12:13
  • Could there be regional differences in the way you say this? I also wonder what preposition you use when there already is a preposition in the street name itself, c.f. "unter den Linden" "am Platz" an the likes. – Beta Nov 01 '16 at 12:50
  • @Beta: Have a look at the comments above; both points have been addressed in some (possibly subjective) remarks there. – O. R. Mapper Nov 01 '16 at 14:04
  • @O.R.Mapper Please do a Google search for "am Rathausplatz" vs. "im Rathausplatz" – tofro Nov 01 '16 at 16:18
  • @tofro: Both seem to exist, with the am version being more frequent. It's difficult to compare, though, as we'd have to restrict all mentions to references to particular buildings. When not used like an address (such as "Rathausplatz 5"), the preposition "in" usually does not make any sense for "Rathausplatz". – O. R. Mapper Nov 01 '16 at 16:23