On the Streets Where We Live ...

... there may not be lilac trees, but European streets carry names that are sometimes laden with history. Red Baron lives on Maria-Theresia-Straße, at the corner of Fürstenbergstraße, while a block away, a street is named Türkenlouisstraße. Some people did not like living on Turkish Pimp Street and complained to Freiburg's city council. These ignoramuses had to learn that Türkenlouis was the nickname given to Ludwig-Wilhelm of Baden-Baden, who successfully pushed back the Turks on the Balkans in the late 17th century and saved the Habsburgs.

Many Germans are obsessed with their broken history, whether on the right or the left. In renaming streets and squares, they try to stun their feeling of guilt. Presently, we are watching a new wave of re-baptizing roll in.

The other day, I read a note in the Berliner Zeitung that the residents of Treitschkestraße held a "plebiscite" against the street's renaming. Heinrich von Treitschke, a renowned Prussian historian in the 19th century, wrote right-wing history books with sentences like the following about the annexed Alsace: "These lands are ours by the right of the sword, and we shall rule them by the right of the German nation." We shall not allow those lost sons to grow apart from the Reich. We Germans know better what avails to the Alsatians ... we shall restore their self against their own will. Even worse, Treitschke coined the later-abused sentence: The Jews are our harm (Die Juden sind unser Unglück).

Going back in history: In 1945, with the fall of the Third Reich, all Nazi street names were eradicated. However, Freiburg's central axis, Adolf-Hitler-Straße, did not recover its previous name, Kaiserstraße. To avoid any allusion to the Second Reich's Kaiser Wilhelm II, the street was renamed Kaiser-Joseph-Straße, reminiscent of the Habsburg rule of Joseph II, Maria-Theresa's son.

Similarly, when the Communist regime tumbled in the east in 1989, names like Walter-Ulbricht-Platz or Wilhelm-Pieck-Straße disappeared. Opposition arose when overzealous city councils threw the baby out with the bathwater, re-baptizing streets named after Ernst Thälmann, the charismatic leader of Germany's Communist Party in the Weimar Republic, murdered by the Nazis.

The recent wave of name changes began in March 2012, when Münster's city council in Westphalia renamed Hindenburgplatz to Schlossplatz. This decision did not please everybody. A popular initiative against the decision cited the culture of remembrance (Erinnerungskultur) as a decisive argument: a square named 85 years ago after the First World War, General Paul von Hindenburg, should keep its name. Mind you, after Hindenburg appointed Hitler Reichskanzler, he became a highly controversial figure. In September 2012, a citizens' vote confirmed the city council's decision by 56,700 to 38,800.

The street renaming mania reached Freiburg two months ago when the city's Commission of Cultural Affairs decided to scrutinize all 1300 street names. Yes, there is a Hindenburgstraße in Freiburg too. Still, concerning renaming streets, Freiburgers instead think of the so-called heros' quarter (Heldenviertel), where you find names of bloody First World War battles like Langemarck und Skagerrak (Battle of Jutland) together with the Imperial admiral Graf Spee and the fighter pilots Oswald Boelcke (Dicta Boelcke), Max Immelmann (Eagle of Lille), and Manfred von Richthofen (Red Baron). Besides, nationalist poets like Hermann Löns (Der Werwolf) and Gorch Fock (Seefahrt ist Not, i.e., Going to sea is necessary) have streets named after them.

Which street names will the commission propose to change, and where will they stop? Will they regard archbishop Conrad Gröber as an adversary of the Nazi regime, although initially, he sympathized with them? Is Alban-Stolz-Straße to be renamed because this catholic poet was an anti-Semite? And what about the namesake of an important Freiburg ring street, Karl von Rotteck, a great liberal personality, but nevertheless accused of anti-Semitic quotations? I shall keep you informed.

©Andreas Höfert

The lucky United States is not "naming" its streets. However, there are exceptions to the rule. In 2004, I took a photo in New York of a street sign commemorating a jazz giant. Well, consider the German tourist reaching for his Handi (mobile phone) in quest for a toilet on W C Handy's Plaza.

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