A street name controversy is a conflict over a public road or street name, also including alleys, squares, parks, quays and motorways.
Background Street names may become controversial when the person, organization, or event they honor is no longer considered deserving, when the names in an area are viewed as unrepresentative of its population, or when signs use disputed languages, scripts, or hard to remember spellings.
Notable examples
Austria World War II In post-war Austria, Franz Langoth was long viewed as a "good" Nazi who bore no responsibility for the excesses of the regime. Therefore, in 1973, a street in his hometown Linz, where he served as mayor in 1944–1945, was renamed Langothstraße. But Langoth always maintained his national-socialist beliefs and publicly defended them. For this reason, the street name was eventually restored to its original name of Kaisergasse in 1986.
Belgium
Language struggle
In the Brussels Capital Region and the municipalities with language facilities, both street names and road signs are officially bilingual. Language activists from several sides are however arguing that these should be monolingual in certain areas in favour of their own language, and that other languages do not "belong" on the signs there. Some even experience this as a kind of colonisation of their own language area. Therefore, these activists sometimes vandalise street name signs and road signs by making the undesired language illegible. This is especially common in the linguistic conflict in Voeren. Others opine that bilingualism of street names is good for individual understanding and mutual tolerance, and that one name is not necessarily "better" than another. They tend to reject resistance to multilingual signs as needlessly hostile and territorial behaviour towards speakers of other languages. In the end, the meaning of the names is the same, and merely spelt differently, or a direct translation of the same word.
World War II The Cyriel Verschaeve street in Lanaken was named after Catholic priest Cyriel Verschaeve (1874–1949), who openly collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, and was therefore convicted and sentenced to death in absentia by the Belgian authorities in 1946. The municipality let its inhabitants choose a new name themselves; the majority voted in favour of "Anne Frank street".
Brazil World War II In 1942, because of anti-Italian sentiment in Brazil during World War II, after a complaint from the National Defense League, the central square of Caxias do Sul, named after Dante Alighieri, was renamed Ruy Barbosa square, and Avenida Itália (Italy Avenue) became Avenida Brasil (Brazil Avenue). They were renamed back in 1990. Military dictatorship In 2014, the city council of Porto Alegre renamed Castelo Branco Avenue, named after the first president of the Brazilian military dictatorship, to Avenida Legalidade e da Democracia (Legality and Democracy Avenue), referencing the movement dubbed Campanha da Legalidade (Legality Campaign) which sought to keep João Goulart in the presidency in 1961. In 2018, the avenue was renamed again to Castello Branco (with an additional "L") after appeals in court claiming that the decision, which was taken by simple majority, should have had a 2/3 majority in the council.
Germany Cold War In former East Germany (officially German Democratic Republic or DDR), many street names still refer to the communist era.
For example, 613 streets and squares have been named after Ernst Thälmann, the leader of the Communist Party of Germany who was executed in Buchenwald concentration camp by the Nazis. Critics argue that he may deserve some street names here and there, but this overload of commemorations has pressed too much of a communist presence in the public sphere. The Kaiserhof underground railway station in Berlin was opened in 1908, in 1950 renamed Thälmannplatz (after the nearby square that was called Wilhelmplatz until 1949), in 1986 renamed Otto-Grotewohl-Straße (after Otto Grotewohl, East German Prime Minister 1949–1960) and in 1992 renamed Mohrenstraße. The Thälmannplatz was abolished in 1987 and added to the Otto-Grotewohl-Straße, which has been restored as Wilhelmstraße in 1992. In 2020, the city announced that Mohrenstraße would be renamed "Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße" for different reasons, namely that the term "Mohren" (Moors) was considered racist by many inhabitants; instead, Anton Wilhelm Amo was honoured for having been the first African person to graduate at a European university.
Morocco French colonialism versus Moroccan nationalism Morocco still has many Francophone street names from the French colonial era. Arab nationalists have pressured the government to Arabise these, and named them after Moroccan national heroes, but Amazigh activists feel they have been ignored, and argue for not forgetting to acknowledge their language and culture in the process of decolonisation.
Amazigh versus Palestinian names In July 2018, the city council of Agadir decided to change the Amazigh names of several streets into names of Palestinian cities to show solidarity with the Palestinian question. Although some Amazigh activists agreed that solidarity with Palestine was a good cause, they regarded the decision as an attempt to erase Amazigh culture and history. Other activists were completely opposed to the move, and did not see any advantage to the Palestinian cause in it, merely an arabising attack on Amazigh identity.
Arabic script versus Tifinagh In the Moroccan city of Agadir, the 80% Tamazight-speaking majority of the population complained that street name signs and road signs were only drawn up in Arabic with Arabic script and in French with Latin script. Activists from the Tamazight language emancipation movement considered this a form of discrimination, and en masse pleaded for the addition of Tamazight names in Tifinagh script, which was approved and introduced by the city council in August 2019.
Salafists from Gulf states In May 2020, controversy arose around the naming of streets after Salafist extremists from the Arab states of the Persian Gulf in the suburb Témara of the Moroccan capital Rabat.
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