Library exhibition “UM-BENANNT” (“RE-NAMED”): Street names in Munich

How Germany confronted the legacy of National Socialism in the period immediately after the Second World War – including debates surrounding public honors and the culture of remembrance – is the focus of the exhibition entitled “RE-NAMED: Street names and the culture of remembrance in Munich after 1945.” The exhibition will be on display in the lending hall at LMU’s University Library until 17 October 2026.

“RE-NAMED” was developed over the last two semesters as part of courses led by Constanze Jeitler, research associate at LMU’s Department of History. The exhibition is the result of a close collaboration between the Chair of Modern and Contemporary History, the University Library, the White Rose Foundation, and the Munich City Archives.

Fascinating stories behind the names

“At first glance, street names may seem ordinary and unremarkable – we rarely pay much attention to them,” says Constanze Jeitler. “But as the course progressed, it quickly became apparent that they reveal fascinating stories and raise important questions about remembrance, power, and the values that shape society.”

Working with historical records preserved in the Munich City Archives, the project team was able to study how the city of Munich dealt with the historical legacy of its role as the Nazis’ “Capital of the Movement” after the end of the Second World War, and how decisions were made about which aspects of the past should continue to be commemorated in the urban landscape.

“We visited the archives, requested historical files, and examined original minutes from Munich City Council meetings where proposals for renaming streets were debated,” says student Maria Schilcher, who contributed to the exhibition along with her fellow students. “For us as students, it was incredibly exciting to be able to get our hands on these documents, which are more than eighty years old, and to analyze and interpret them for ourselves.”

Street names are more than neutral guides

The exhibition clearly shows that streets and public squares are more than neutral guides to point us in the right direction. They reflect political, social, and cultural values and the way these values evolve over time. Both at the time and today, debates over street names reflect broader conflicts about historical remembrance. Commemorative place names show which people a society chooses to honor, while streets that are renamed indicate which public figures it no longer wishes to celebrate.

Immediately after the end of the Second World War in the spring of 1945, Munich’s mayor, City Council, and the Allied military government faced the enormous task not only of restoring essential services to a city largely destroyed by war, but also of removing any National Socialist symbols and influences from public life. The processes of denazification and demilitarization affected not only the government, politics, the media, business, and cultural institutions, but also the city’s public spaces.

This challenge was particularly acute in Munich, which the Nazi regime had promoted as the “Capital of the Movement.” Between 1933 and 1945, more than 1,000 streets and public squares were newly named or renamed by the Nazis. As part of this process, streets named after Jewish people, political opponents of the Nazi regime, or advocates of democracy were systematically erased from the city’s map. Among them were Schüleinstraße and Schüleinsplatz in the Berg am Laim district, both named after the Jewish brewery owner and philanthropist Joseph Schülein.

Instead, the Nazi authorities preferred names commemorating Germany’s former colonies that were lost after the First World War as well as the regime’s so-called “Martyrs of the Movement.”

Controversies surrounding the renaming of streets

Following the end of the Second World War, city officials, the Allied military government, and the people of Munich thus faced the challenge of deciding which aspects of the past, which historical events, and which individuals should remain visible in the city’s streetscape, and what lessons should be drawn from Germany’s recent history.

The naming of the two squares in front of LMU as Geschwister-Scholl-Platz and Prof.-Huber-Platz as early as 1946 illustrates that the public was keen at a very early stage for streets and squares to be given new names. Professor Kurt Huber, a musicologist, was also a member of the White Rose resistance group.

“I’m always deeply moved every time I come across a document showing that, as early as June 1945, local citizens were already calling for the squares in front of the university to be named after Hans and Sophie Scholl and Professor Kurt Huber,” says Dr. Hildegard Kronawitter, Chair of the White Rose Foundation. “For me, this early recognition of the White Rose resistance is a powerful symbol of Germany’s new beginning as a democracy.”

A very different example is provided by Münchener Freiheit, which was known as Danziger Freiheit during the period of Nazi rule. Some former resistance fighters from the Freiheitsaktion Bayern (Bavarian Freedom Initiative) were resistant to being appropriated by the new system of public commemoration established after the war. Opposition also came from the public, with many people arguing that renaming streets was unnecessary at a time when the city faced far more pressing challenges.

“Commemoration is not the passive preservation of the past”

For Jill Popin and Theresa Zierhut, whose contribution to the exhibition focuses on Geschwister-Scholl-Platz, the project posed a unique challenge: “How do you write about something that directly concerns your own institution and the place where you study?”

As part of their research, the two students explored in great depth how the White Rose has been commemorated at LMU. “We started by looking at the university’s memorials and commemorative events as well as materials from the Munich City Archives, including City Council debates, newspaper articles, and letters,” explains Zierhut. “The key finding,” adds Popin, “is that commemoration is not the passive preservation of the past. It’s a social process that shapes collective identity and reflects the values of a society.”

Many street names still have a link to colonialism or National Socialism

After 1945, however, only a small fraction of streets and public squares named during the Nazi period were actually renamed. Most of the streets and squares whose names were changed had an obvious connection to the Nazi regime, such as the streets and squares named after Adolf Hitler.

As a result, many street names in Munich still commemorate antisemitic thinkers or figures associated with German colonialism. One example is Hella-von-Westarp-Straße, which was named in 1936 and today is on the list of streets considered to have “an increased need for public discussion.” Hella von Westarp was a member of the antisemitic and far-right Thule Society during her lifetime.

Personal connections

For his contribution to the exhibition, Raffael Viviani looked at Kardinal-Faulhaber-Straße. The former Archbishop of Munich and Freising was renowned in particular for his loyalty to the Nazi regime. “The idea for my contribution came from the fact that my grandmother spent 45 years working on that street. That’s why I immediately took notice when it became part of the current debate about the renaming of streets,” recalls the LMU student. For Viviani, one of the greatest challenges and “at the same time one of the most rewarding experiences” was carefully analyzing and contextualizing the historical sources preserved in the Munich City Archives while presenting all the different perspectives and their historical backgrounds as accurately as possible within the context of the current debate.

Constanze Jeitler also discovered remarkable information about the street where she herself lives: “Among the records from the Nazi period is an expert report prepared in 1939 by the Reich Office for Genealogical Research. The report confirms that the city authorities suspected the individual after whom the street was named was of Jewish descent. However, the outbreak of the Second World War meant that plans to erase the memory of this Jewish citizen of Munich from the cityscape were never carried out.”

A place for societal reorientation

The exhibition in the University Library’s lending hall clearly shows that debates over how to address the Nazi past in the immediate postwar years anticipated many of the questions that continue to shape discussions today about street names, public visibility, and historical responsibility. At the same time, the exhibition and the accompanying website showcase university teaching as a place where new historical knowledge is created and shared.

Exhibition website (German only)

Interactive maps for the exhibition website

The exhibition website was developed by Kristina Gunne and Yiqing Wang as part of the Digital Humanities Certificate Program at LMU.

“As a doctoral student in history, building a website and learning the background knowledge that I needed to do so was completely new to me. It was certainly challenging, but it was also incredibly exciting,” says Gunne.

Gunne and Wang created interactive maps that visualize which streets and squares were renamed in Munich between 1945 and 1947. “From this, we then developed a second interactive map that shows which places were renamed during the Nazi period. We also designed the website’s overall structure so that the online exhibition would have its own distinctive identity rather than simply reproducing the physical exhibition,” explains Gunne.

“What I found particularly exciting was the combination of historical sources, database work, and digital methods,” adds Yiqing Wang. “The project allowed me not only to apply my digital skills in a practical way, but also to discover lots of fascinating stories that lie behind the names of streets in Munich.”

More than a term paper: reflecting on remembrance in the public realm

The course leader Constanze Jeitler was particularly impressed to see the curiosity and confidence with which students approached and analyzed all the historical sources throughout the winter and summer semesters, while also engaging with today’s debates about street names and the culture of remembrance. “This exhibition is not simply an academic term paper. It’s the result of young people engaging with contemporary questions about how remembrance is represented and made visible in the public realm.”