One of the most monumental streets in Berlin is Karl-Marx-Allee. The name of this street was not without controversy, especially in the past. On December 22, 1949, East German officials named the street Stalinallee. It remained so long after the death of the Soviet autocrat in 1953, an oddity for East Germany, which was part of the Eastern Bloc. You have to know that the “de-Stalinization” of public space took place after 1956 throughout the Soviet Union and also in large parts of Eastern Europe, with the exception of the GDR and Albania. Only in November 1961 was part of Stalinallee renamed Frankfurter Allee and another part Karl-Marx-Allee.
Street names help define a city’s identity as well as historical stops. They reflect ideologies and the culture of remembrance in the cities. This is especially true for streets named after historical data.
No other date in Germany has more streets and squares dedicated to it than June 17, to commemorate the uprising of East Berlin workers in 1953, which began at a construction site on what was then Stalinallee. In Berlin, a street and a square bear the name of June 17th. There are even 19 locations throughout Germany.
Much more information can be found on road signs across the country. Such “date roads” mark local, national and global events. They refer to uprisings, wars, peace treaties, accidents and natural disasters, holidays. We have evaluated Berlin street names with a date reference and provide an overview here.
Date Streets in Berlin: “Independence Day” is in the west
Die June 17 Street and the People’s Uprising Square von 1953 in Tiergarten/Charlottenburg (street) and Mitte (square) were named after a wave of strikes and protests that took place in East Berlin on June 17, 1953.
The name of Square of March 18th in Mitte refers to two events: the March Revolution of 1848 in Berlin and the Volkskammer elections of 1990, the first elections in the GDR based on democratic principles.
Of the April 23rd Square in Köpenick is named in memory of the entry of the 1st Guards Tank Army and the 8th Guards Army of the Soviet forces on April 23, 1945.
Of the July 4th Square in Lichterfelde served as a parade ground for the US Army troops stationed there and was given its present name on July 4, 1976 on the occasion of the Independence Day of the USA.
Of the Square of November 9, 1989 in Prenzlauer Berg is named after the day the wall fell.
Date roads throughout Germany: June 17 beats everything
Fifty-nine streets and squares
in Germany are named after a calendar day. None of them are in September or December.
The graphic below shows the division of the 59 Date Streets into East (yellow) and West Germany (purple) based on the dates after which they were named. Each date in the table is colored according to the type of historical event to which it relates.
The main thing is revolutionary: what do the 59 date roads in Germany remind us of?
Around the world
The practice of naming streets after calendar dates varies widely around the world. While some countries do not have streets named after a date, other countries, such as B. in Germany’s neighboring country France, numerous of them. Almost 20 percent of all date roads in the world can be found there.
There are around 41,179 streets worldwide that are named after calendar dates. Of these, 7100 have dates in their names. More than half of these roads are in Europe. Although France has the most date streets, most date streets have Spanish names.
Good to know
The English language ranks 9th in the number of date roads. Most of these roads are outside of the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Sources:
Berlin: Open Street Map, berlin.de, Kauperts
Deutschland: Open Street Map, strassen-in-deutschland.de, Die Zeit
Changes in street names in East Berlin: Azaryahu, M. „Street Names and Political Identity: The Case of East Berlin“ in Journal of Contemporary History Vol. 21, No. 4 (1986), S. 581–604; Verheyen, D. „What’s in a Name? Street Name Politics and Urban Identity in Berlin“ in German Politics & Society Vol. 15, No. 3 (1997), S. 44–72.
Around the world: Strötgen, J., Andrade, R., Gupta, D. „Putting Dates on the Map: Harvesting and Analyzing Street Names with Date Mentions and their Explanations“ (2018), Max Planck Institute for Informatics. Automated systems were used in this study, giving an accuracy of 93-97%.