Street names are a reflection of society. They represent different, sometimes contradictory images of a city. The exhibition shows the naming and renaming of streets and squares in the district of Reinickendorf from the Weimar Republic to the present day.
Image gallery
Umbenennung Rosenthaler Str in Holzhauser Str 1937, Foto Holzhauser Straße, Ecke Oranienburger Straße 1938, © Archiv Museum Reinickendorf
The street names refer to Reinickendorf as a place to live in the countryside, to its industrial history or to the French occupation. Reinickendorf's street names reflect the importance of the former villages, as a Berlin suburb and as an internationally networked district. Streets also changed their names with the respective political eras. So a walk through the streets of Reinickendorf is also a journey through history.
The exhibition was curated by Dr. Daniel Hadwiger.
The exhibition series "rename? Berlin's street names in history and history" is intended as a contribution to the debate and poses questions that can also offer a perspective for future controversies: To what extent are the prevailing political power relations reflected in the naming of streets and squares? What potential do discourses on street names hold for the development of a democratic, participatory and engaged urban public and what forms of identification and projection do street names enable?
A joint exhibition project of the Aktives Museum Faschismus und Widerstand in Berlin e.V. and the Arbeitskreis Berliner Regionalmuseen (ABR), conceived in 2024.
