Geschichtspolitik Im Offentlichen Raum Zur Benennung Und Umbenennung Von Straen Im Internationalen Vergleich

It is a wide-spread misunderstanding that we can understand the history of a city by reading its street names. Actually, they represent hegemonic relationships: dominant elites write their values in public and are therefore confronted with adaptation processes and critical responses. In this present issue five case studies from Israel to Hungary, from Spain to Belgium and Austria will demonstrate street names as instruments of national and local historical policies. The respective national contexts differ heavily depending on the country and era they are characterised by post-dictatorial and post-colonial discourses as well as ethnic conflicts. One thing they have in common is the highly-affective connotation of the symbol street name on the background of competing political and historical identities. The authors ask for protagonists, reasons and strategies of the inscription and adaptation and analyses typical courses of naming and renaming debates.