Street names under the magnifying glass: Berlin honors women and fights against prejudices

Street names under the magnifying glass: Berlin honors women and fights against prejudices

Berlin, Deutschland - In recent years, an intensive discourse has developed in Berlin about the naming and renaming of streets. This change is often due to the history and the biographies of the namesake, especially if they are connected with anti -democratic backgrounds. The growing interest in renaming is particularly striking, which is reinforced by a changed awareness of discrimination in the population. In this context, two districts are actively committed to naming a street or a place after the Holocaust-surviving Margot Friedländer, which indicates the strengthened dialogue about historical responsibility. According to rbb24 , the residents have to be informed, even if they do not have any veto law.

Current renaming trends

In recent years, a trend has established itself that many districts prefer to prefer women's names when the streets are called. In Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, it was decided in 2005 to only honor women as namesake until a parity distribution was achieved. At least 25 streets have been renamed Berlin in the past ten years, with increasing awareness of the problem of honorable names. This is expressed in a list of controversial street names with anti -Semitic context and shows that many debates about renaming are still imminent. The legal framework for renaming is §§ 5 of the Berlin Road Act, which is permitted in certain cases - especially in the case of negatively burdened names.

An example of the complexity of the renaming is the long process from the initiative to actual implementation. The renaming of Treitschke-Straße in Betty-Katz-Straße took a whopping 25 years. In this process, there are often bureaucratic hurdles and difficulties in communication with residents that can lead to delays. At the moment, at least eight renams have been decided in Berlin, but have not yet been implemented, and further eight applications are available.

debates about historical contextualization

The discussion about road renovations is not limited to Berlin, but also takes place in other cities such as Munich, Mainz and Koblenz. The debates often extend to the review of historical names that represent problematic personalities. For example, the Pacelliallee in Berlin, named after Eugenio Pacelli, a Pope who helped Nazi-Takers helped, are discussed in the public discussion. Historical contexts of street names are often not sufficiently taken into account, which leads to protests and demands for renaming, such as in the discussion about Mohrenstrasse in Radebeul or the demands of Julien Reitzenstein, to rename the Pacelliallee into Golda-Meir-Allee, such as zeit.de reported.

The concept of questioning historical names requires a fine feeling for the social changes and recognizes the political agenda of the respective time. Some critics warn that the guided debates could represent the first step towards a far-reaching renaming entire districts, as the CDU parliamentary group leader in Kreuzberg, Timur Husein, emphasized. Revales thus become a mirror of a changing society and its values.

As the examples from Neukölln show, renaming are also understood as a sign of memory of victims of violence and the recognition of their achievements. In this context, the headstrasse in Roland-Krüger-Straße and Morussstraße in Uwe-Lieschied-Straße were renamed on February 27, 2025. These renams are not only significant from a historical perspective, but also an act of solidarity that is perceived equally by experts and the public. District Mayor Martin Hikel, who took part in the renaming celebration, referred to such measures as an enrichment of the city and its history, such as "https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/geschichte- der-dem-pruefstand-ebatte-ueber-100.html" Class = "Source_3"> Deutschlandfunk