UpStadt e.V. on the process of renaming Blücher Square to Eva Mamlok Square

According to oral tradition, she even climbed onto the roof of the Tietz department store on Blücherplatz and wrote ‘Down with Hitler’ there.

With this renaming, however, the borough is honouring not only Eva Mamlok personally, but also the resistance of Jewish women against Nazism, which has often been less visible in Berlin until now. This revokes the square’s 1884 naming after the Prussian field marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. Blücherplatz is one of many locations in Kreuzberg named after generals and battles from the Wars of Liberation against the Napoleonic forces in 1813–14.

The renaming was initiated by UpStadt e.V., a non-profit organisation formed in 2020 from three Kreuzberg-based initiatives, which is committed to the development of the town hall block on the Dragonerareal in the public interest.

The association also plans to establish a permanent history and learning centre there, in the former stables on Mehringdamm.

At the event, Bertram Dudschus, urban activist and co-chair of UpStadt e.V., will talk more about the renaming process and how it came about.

The event forms part of the supporting programme for the exhibition ‘Rename?! WERKSTADT – Activism, Criticism and Actions on Street Names’ organised by the association Straßenlärm Berlin e.V. in cooperation with the FHXB Museum.