Unwanted Legacies

Even though WWII is long over there still are legacies that remind us of that time. In Munich they found an old bomb and had to detonate it. Several houses burned and many more are uninhabitable now.

Here in Münster the legacies are not that spectacular. Like in many other towns in Germany streets and places were named after "heroes" of WWI and the German Empire. During the last decades historical research has looked more critically into these persons which caused towns to rename many streets and squares. Münster was a bit on the slower side in this topic but this year the city council decided to rename the largest square in town from "Hindenburgplatz" to "Schlossplatz" (palace square).

Hindenburg was Chief of the General Staff of the German Reich in WWI and became President of Germany in 1925. It was him who appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany. Hence he was not the kind of person a modern city wants its main square to be named after. So far so good. 

Unfortunately there are still many people around who are ignorant of the past. For reasons incomprehensible to me it are the young and ambitious (young politicians of the JU) who put a lot of effort into campaigning for the old name. At the end of the day we are having a vote on the name. I could think of a lot of better ways to spend tax money. 

You can read a good summary why you should vote NEIN-NO on "Hindenburgplatz" by Carsten Keßler here.

 

PS: I'm still waiting for the day the city will rename the "Lüderitzweg".