Dispute over street names in Regensburg: Mayor buckles in front of the CSU - and snubs his own administration

Created: 02/13/2022, 07:01

Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer snubbed education officer Hermann Hage on Thursday - out of consideration for the coalition partner.

© Peter Ferstl/City of Regensburg

Almost all parties in the city council approve of a proposal by education officer Hermann Hage on how to deal with problematic street names.

All except the CSU.

Regensburg - Education officer Hermann Hage is noted on Thursday that he is not particularly enthusiastic about the statements made by his boss.

The education committee is actually about dealing with polluted street names in the city of Regensburg*.

A detailed recommendation for action is also presented, which was developed by the master's student Nelly Klein at the OTH Regensburg and which is also unanimously welcomed by the city councillors.

But it is also about a template that the education officer wanted to present to the committee members and which then does not appear on the agenda.

In the run-up there had been criticism from the CSU* – the largest member of the governing coalition.

Dispute over street names: OB snubs her education officer

But Mayor Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer (SPD) insists: “No submission has been taken off the agenda.

A draft template was not on the agenda.

And the agenda is created by me.

There are only points if I say they will be added.”

However, it makes no difference whether a item is taken off the agenda or not.

The signal remains: the mayor buckled in front of the CSU – at the expense of her education officer.

In the run-up to the meeting, Hermann Hage had passed the template on to a journalist from the

– in confidence and with a blocking period, just as background information, says Hage.

But it was reported anyway.

Broad and detailed.

The CSU screamed clamor and murder.

In particular, in a press release, the party rejects the “accompanying committee” proposed by Hage, in which the public should be involved in discussing the respective handling of individual names – and incidentally questioned the entire procedure.

Dispute over street names: CSU proposal violates city guidelines

They said they didn't want to wait any longer.

Instead, it needs "now finally a referral by the city council, if a street, a square or a park in Regensburg * is actually demonstrably heavily burdened by a NS namesake".

“A hodgepodge of proposals from D.-Martin-Luther-Strasse via Richard-Wagner-Strasse to Drei-Mohren-Gasse (sic!) will certainly not be acceptable to the CSU and a majority of Regensburg citizens. "

In addition, the CSU called for the Karl-Freitag-Park, which bears the name of a Nazi multi-functionary, to be quickly renamed Hildegard-Anke-Park, after the former CSU social mayor of Regensburg.

A suggestion, by the way, that is not even possible according to a municipal directive from 1987 - naming after people who are still alive is therefore excluded.

But that does not seem to bother the CSU.

Ex-OB criticizes OB: Attacks on the administration should not be tolerated

Maltz-Schwarzfischer defended his coalition partner despite this sharp attack on Thursday.

There was probably "a misunderstanding" by the CSU.

This only reacted to a newspaper article and not to an administrative proposal.

This in turn caused sharp criticism from the Brücke parliamentary group leader Joachim Wolbergs, former mayor.

It is unacceptable that the mayor tolerates such attacks by the CSU on the administration.

The Green City Councilor Daniel Gaittet sees it similarly.

The CSU "threw the shovel in the sandbox".

She questions the entire further procedure, which - as will become clear on Thursday - all parliamentary groups, with the exception of the CSU, have a consistently positive attitude towards.

Action plan for street names: women are hardly present

The framework for this is provided by Nelly Klein's 70-page master's thesis, a cooperation project with the education department.

Klein explains the naming patterns of street names and how they have changed over the centuries.

After the French Revolution, in addition to pure orientation, naming people and national motives became increasingly important.

After the First World War in the Weimar Republic, the glorification of areas that had to be ceded in the course of the Versailles Treaty was often a naming motif, but the names of "colonial pioneers" and colonial criminals were also immortalized in the street scene in this way.

During National Socialism, the Aryanization and eradication of Jewish street names shaped the picture.

According to Klein, the Allied order after 1945 to rename streets with reference to the Nazi regime, Nazi criminals and militarism was only partially implemented.

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After the war, street names increasingly became the subject of public debate in West Germany and also after reunification – democratization had taken place.

Klein's conclusion: (personal) street names are not a mirror of history, but an image of historically grown political power structures, within which some groups were integrated and others excluded.

Men are therefore still far more present in the public street scene than women.

Street name suggestions: Broad discussion is needed

In 2021, the German Association of Cities published a handout on how to deal with street names.

If sponsors or organizations after which streets are named violate the Basic Law or human rights, renaming should be considered.

Naming people who are still alive is not permitted.

Instead of renaming, an additional explanatory sign could also be considered, says Klein.

According to experiences from other cities, it has generally proven itself to first set up a committee of experts to identify possible names.

The public should then urgently be involved – for example through exhibitions, discussion groups, art and other educational opportunities.

Above all, there must be a catalog of criteria to filter the street names in question.

Are there references to National Socialism, colonialism and militarism or group-related enmity such as racism?

Street renaming: "No more salami tactics."

According to education officer Hage, 400 of the approximately 1,300 street names in Regensburg have already been sorted out as harmless.

Further research is now to follow in order to present a collected package at the end.

"No more salami tactics," says Hage.

The CSU remains rather subdued on Thursday.

City Councilor Bernadette Dechant only questions whether a new body is actually needed to deal with it.

The commemorative culture department is completely sufficient to process the whole thing.

And that only requires scientists anyway.

Any local residents are overwhelmed with it.

Dechant does not go into the rest of the content of the much-criticized press release.

And at least here the mayor contradicts.

Public involvement is imperative.

It must also be understood why a street is being renamed or not.

There is no reason to get excited or to rush.

"We have time."

The next coalition dispute is already pending

In the meantime, it remains open how the original proposal from education officer Hage is to be dealt with.

She will probably do one or two more rounds in the coalition committee.

Another conflict is imminent there – the CSU no longer wants to fill the education department again after Hage’s departure in mid-2022, but instead want to strike Social Mayor Astrid Freudenstein.

For reasons of economy, as it is officially called.