Citizens' perspective on street names
On 20 November 2024, a Citizens' Jury in the German city of Warendorf submitted its proposals for the future procedure for naming streets to the city council. The background to this is the naming of streets after people who are accused of supporting National Socialism.
The Citizens' Jury formulated recommendations on the following topics:
1. basic guidelines for future street names
2. general procedure for applications for street renaming
3. dealing with the specific requests for the renaming of four streets
The meeting of the 16-member Citizens' Jury on 11 and 12 October 2024 included speed dating, specialist presentations, a city tour and expert discussions. In addition to personal matters, the main focus of the get-to-know-you session on the first day of the mini-public on 11 October was on questions about the participants’ own place of residence: why is their street called what it is called, and who has ever thought about how the street got its name or whether it had a different name in the past?
A Germany-wide phenomenon
In order to provide the participants with an equal level of knowledge, the get-together was followed by a lecture by Dr Matthias Frese (LWL Institute for Regional History), in which Dr Frese highlighted typical trends in street naming and shed light on numerous perspectives of the pros and cons of renaming. He used a 2021 publication by the German Association of Cities and Towns to illustrate that the debate about street names is a nationwide phenomenon in Germany. The publication is intended to help local authorities review existing rules and regulations or create them for the first time.
When addressing the question of how a suitable set of rules could be designed, Dr Frese also drew attention to typical grey areas, for example when an unblemished historical figure can be found for a street that has been named after a person with a tarnished reputation, and instead of renaming the street, the person to be honoured is simply changed. With the help of archive material from the town of Warendorf, he also showed that the renaming of streets has repeatedly occupied towns and municipalities in the past.
Guided tour and walk
At the end of the day, a guided tour of the old town with a focus on street names awaited the participants. A short keynote speech showed how the street names in the old town have changed over time, which streets have retained their names for centuries and what origin one or the other street name suggests. During an evening city walk, the members of the mini-public were then introduced to the curiosities and exciting historical references of the streets, which are steeped in history.
Saturday started with a survey of experts to deepen the first impressions from the previous evening and to clarify open questions. The director of the Warendorf Adult Education Centre, Mareike Beer, was available in the morning to answer questions about political education. She emphasised the importance of accessibility and raised the participants' awareness that when renaming streets, comprehensibility, including the spelling and readability of street names, should be considered for all population groups.
Costs for residents
As a board member of the Freckenhorst Heritage Society, Margit Schulze Stentrup contributed her knowledge on the topics of heritage and tradition and discussed with the participants various aspects of personal street names and possible reasons for or against renaming.
André Depenwisch, head of the Citizens' Office and Registry Office team at the Warendorf city administration, was available to answer any administrative questions the participants might have, for example about the individual costs that residents would incur if the street name were to change. Similar to a move, for example, a new street name would require address changes in documents such as ID cards or Part II of the vehicle registration document in the case of a new street name. The findings from the expert survey were then discussed further in plenary.
Discussion in working groups
The second part of Saturday was then devoted to the recommendations for renaming and redesignating streets. In three working groups, the aspects previously collected were further elaborated. In all groups, intensive discussions were held for two hours on the three main topics of ‘ethics, morals, persons’, ‘effort, participation’ and ‘further criteria’ in a professional and respectful atmosphere, before the results were finally voted on in plenary.
At the end, Mayor Peter Horstmann received very concrete results and took the opportunity to thank the members of the Citizens' Jury. He was impressed by the positive atmosphere among the participants and invited everyone involved to continue to follow the further political process.
Recommendations submitted to city council
The results of the one-and-a-half-day Citizens‘ Jury were further processed and summarised in a position paper by an editorial group made up of jury members, the administration and the moderator. The recommendations were presented to the Warendorf City Council on 20 November 2024, but have not yet been discussed further. Members of the mini-public were given the opportunity to report to the political representatives on the results of the Citizens’ Jury and their personal experiences.
The Citizens' Jury recognises that the determination of “honourability”, or its removal, can be a challenging process on a broad basis of acceptance. The impact on neighbouring residents is considered to be not insignificant. The following procedural proposal was therefore submitted to politicians and the administration for the further development of a model process for renaming procedures.
Decision on renaming on a broad basis of opinion
1. the decision on renaming should be based on a broad public opinion with public participation. Information for opinion-forming must be prepared and made available to the public. The costs of a planned renaming for individuals/the general public must also be communicated.
2. as a rule, the general public must bear the costs, as the renaming is initiated by the general public (‘Whoever orders the music must also pay for it’). The city does not charge any fees and reimburses fees charged by other authorities. Affected residents receive an appropriate lump sum for their expenses.
3. the city should define a procedure with deadlines for the individual procedural steps. Duration max. 2 years. (Decision to initiate the process, develop the basis for opinion-forming/prepare expert opinions, public participation, evaluation and processing of the comments/suggestions, at best a synopsis with a response from the city council (‘feedback’), at the end a mandatory conclusion with a council decision in favour of or against the renaming, implementation if necessary; a new ‘roll-up’ only in the event of new findings).
4. the accessibility of the procedure must be guaranteed.
Participation a good decision
Members of the Citizens' Jury expressed their satisfaction with the process when presenting their recommendations. ‘Don't we have any other problems?’ thought participant Annemarie Weber at the beginning. After she quickly realised with astonishment ‘that street names have been discussed here in Warendorf for 40 years’, her opinion was clear: ‘We should come to a decision!’
Leon Bernsen initially took an almost neutral approach. Even though he didn't know exactly what he was getting into, he simply took the opportunity to get involved. And he thought it was a good decision. Especially as the time commitment was just right - from the knowledge transfer to the city tour.
City council decision in spring 2025
The first committee consultation on the recommendations will take place in the Freckenhorst-Hoetmar and Einen-Müssingen/Milte district committees at the beginning of 2025, followed by a discussion in the culture and school committee. The adoption of a policy paper by the city council is planned for spring 2025.
The city council had decided to hold the Citizens’ Jury on 16 May 2024. After the city invited 500 citizens aged 16 and over who had been randomly selected from the residents‘ register in July, 38 people who wanted to take part in the Citizens’ Jury had responded by the end of the feedback period on 25 August.
The 16 participants in the mini-public were randomly selected from the responses, taking into account the criteria of age, gender, place of residence (district) and nationality. The participants received an expense allowance of 50 euros.
Against racism and antisemitism
In December 2023, the SPD, Greens and Die Linke/Die Partei in the city council applied for a revision of the naming of streets and squares as well as their renaming. Among other things, they proposed giving the city council responsibility for the issue. Naming suggestions from local residents should be taken into consideration. In addition, exhibitions on this topic are to be organised in the city museum in the event of renaming. The proposal also provides for the reimbursement of costs incurred by residents, for example for changing documents.
By changing street names, the aim is to show that the city "no longer wants to have anything to do with racism and anti-Semitism". The "strange survival" of Nazi supporters in street names should be documented and explained.
"An emotional topic"
Specifically, it is about Wagenfeldstraße, Freiherr von Langen-Straße, Agnes-Miegel-Weg and Heinrich-Tenhumberg-Straße. While the first three namesakes are accused of supporting National Socialism, the former Bishop Heinrich Tenhumberg is accused of being responsible for sexual abuse under the umbrella of the Catholic Church.
The motion picks up on a decades-long, still open discussion about how to deal with historically charged street names. "The history of political applications and discussions makes it clear that there is no clear definition of honourability in the context of street renaming and that some of the street names applied for cannot be directly and unequivocally identified as street names to be renamed," reads a submission from the city administration. Street renaming is often an emotional and costly issue for the residents of the respective streets.
Citizens' Jury guidelines as a basis
The administration therefore proposed setting up a Citizens' Jury to develop recommendations on these issues. The Citizens' Participation Working Group was also in favour of setting up the first Citizens' Jury in Warendorf to deal with this topic. "It would be good to get a broadly supported result," said Mayor Peter Horstmann on 6 May 2024 in the main, finance and economic committee.
A budget of 25,000 euros has been set aside in the 2024 budget to organise a Citizens' Jury. The mini-public took place on the basis of the guidelines for testing municipal citizens' juries in the city of Warendorf, which the city council adopted on 21 March 2024.