A Street Name Story

 I often tell German historical stories....so this is an odd one.

If you live in Berlin....you probably know Mohrenstraße.  It's a east-west street in the center of town.  It's been around since 1700.  

The story goes....originally for naming purposes....that it was named after a 'Moor' (African black guy).  The story suggests that this one black guy had been doing work for the Margrave of Schwedt (man of royalty at the time) and for some feat (never listed or described)....the Margrave gave the permission to build a house there.

I should note....the story is only told via ONE single person, and it's hard find anyone or any source will vouch on the Margrave story or the Moor-part of the episode.  The story may be made up or simply 'fake' news from 1700.  

I should also suggest....since the 'feat' is never described, this leaves one to wonder if this was something of a discreet nature (that we'd best not dig into).

This comes up today because a legal case in Berlin is advancing....suggesting that it's racist to call the street Mohrenstraße.

Local feeling?  Oddly....no one who actually lives on the street wants the name change.

The new suggested name?  Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Strasse.  Who?  Well....in the early 1700s, there was this black African professor who taught at the university in Jena and Halle.  

What the court has to attend to?  Well....first....it seems that they have to determine if 'moor' is racist, and this might not be that simple.  Moors was a descriptive term to describe mostly Muslims in the Maghreb region (far north coast of Africa).  It was never intended to be slang or racist in nature.

Reading through Berlin news....it's hard to find anyone who actually lives on the street who feels this is racist.  I'm guessing the court will grin as this problem is mentioned.  

In some funny way....there are a 1,000-odd complaints existing about it being racist, but once you establish residence of the 1,000.....no one much lives on the street in question.

My issue?  There are 4,000-plus street names in the city of Berlin, and if you started to go down each one....I'm pretty sure that 100-plus of them would have to be 'corrected' if you are going to be 'woke' on this.

It certainly would make sense if this were named 'Hitler-Strasse' or 'Kaiser-Wilhelm-Strasse'.  But not having anyone of the 3,000-odd people who live on the street stand up and criticize the name....makes me wonder if this is important or not.