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Heinrichplatz became Rio-Reiser-Platz
Photo:
IMAGO/Ralf Pollack
The musician Rio Reiser (»King of Germany«, »Everything Lies«) now has a square named after him in Berlin.
The small Heinrichplatz in the district of Kreuzberg was officially renamed on Sunday.
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Musician Reiser (at a performance in 1987)
Photo: Thomas Muncke / picture alliance / dpa
Reiser (1950-1996) was born as Ralph Christian Möbius in Berlin. His life and career were closely linked to the city and the trendy neighborhood for many years.
The »Rauch-Haus-Song« from 1972, for example, was about a squatting at Mariannenplatz in Kreuzberg.
»For Rio, the private was always political«
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) also came to the celebration with several thousand people and concerts.
In the 1980s, she was the manager of the political rock band Ton Steine Scherben (»Destroy what is destroying you«, »No power for nobody«), whose singer Reiser was before his solo career.
For a while, Roth and Reiser lived with other musicians in a flat-sharing farmhouse in Fresenhagen, North Friesland.
For Roth, the renaming is a symbolic return of Rio Reiser to a district that was his home for years.
She also recalled the singer's commitment.
He admitted his homosexuality "in an ostracizing time," which was "damn brave."
"For Rio, the private was always political," Roth said.
The square that now bears Reiser's name is on Oranienstraße with many pubs, bars and clubs in the middle of SO 36. That's what the area is still called by many, the name came from the old postal delivery area of Southeast 36.
In Berlin, the idea of honoring Rio Reiser accordingly had been around for a long time.
In 2019, the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district assembly decided to rename Heinrichplatz - while the left voted in favor and the AfD and CDU voted against, the Greens, the party and the SPD were divided.
But it was enough for the majority.
The plans of the district office were published in the official gazette in April 2021.
There were four objections from local residents.
These were rejected as inadmissible in October.
The decision was controversial, for example because the male-heavy list of streets and squares should actually be loosened up by women's names.
"Although the district initially primarily accepts women's names for naming streets, the honor is still possible for Rio Reiser as a person with an LGBTTIQ background," says a text from the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district museum on the renaming.
The popular square in the scene was previously called Heinrichplatz after Heinrich of Prussia (1781-1846), a younger brother of King Friedrich Wilhelm III.
(1770-1840).
The M29 bus line, which is also popular with many Berlin tourists, has directly followed the change in Kreuzberg.
At the same time, the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) renamed their stop from Heinrichplatz to Rio-Reiser-Platz.
feb/dpa
