African quarter

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Residential complex on Nachtigalplatz

The African Quarter is located in the Berlin district of Wedding ( Mitte district ). It is delimited by Müllerstrasse and Seestrasse as well as the Rehberge park (with Goethepark ) and the district border with the Reinickendorf district . The following streets are in the district:

African road , Damarastraße , Dualastraße , Ghana road , Guinea Street , Cameroonian Road , Congo Street , Luderitz Street , Mohasistraße , Otawistraße , Peter Avenue , Zambezi Road , Sansibarstraße , Senegal Street , Swakopmund Road , Tanga Street , Togostraße , Transvaal Road , Uganda Road , Usambarastraße and Windhuker road and the Nachtigalplatz .

Naming

Street sign of the Lüderitzstraße named after Adolf Lüderitz

Before the First World War, Carl Hagenbeck planned a facility for today's Rehberge Park - similar to his Hamburg zoo , in which he wanted to present animals and people from the German colonies on the African continent, among other things . The war prevented these plans, but the street names were already taken, so they still exist today.

There is still controversy about the naming of the quarter. Named after actors of colonialism roads in particular, as the Lüderitz road that Peters avenue and the Nachtigal are space repeatedly target of initiatives to rename. They are seen by critics as relics from the time of imperialism and colonialism as discriminatory towards Africans and therefore problematic.

Since the late 1990s, around 1,000 African citizens have moved into the neighborhood (mainly from Ghana , Cameroon and Nigeria ), so that a total of around 2,500 Africans are currently officially registered in the neighborhood. In addition, there are numerous naturalized persons and children of African origin born in Germany who are not recorded as such.

Name changes
The above-mentioned Lüderitzstraße, Petersallee and Nachtigalplatz are to be renamed according to a resolution by the responsible district of Mitte. To this end, a jury was formed in 2016 under the leadership of the Green politician Bertrand Njoume, which asked residents to suggest names. From the total of submitted personal names, six were shortlisted in May 2017: Nzinga von Matamba , Yaa Asantewaa , Martin Dibobe , the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai , Rudolf Manga Bell and Miriam Makeba . After Matamba’s proposal to name it after Nzinga came under fire because of its connection to the slave trade and lack of connection to German history, the first proposals were rejected. In April 2018, the district assembly announced the final selection: Lüderitzstrasse is named after Cornelius Frederiks , one of the leaders in the Nama uprising against the German colonial occupation. Nachtigalplatz is named after Emily and Rudolf Duala Manga Bell , who played a central role in the Duala's resistance against German colonial rule. Petersallee is divided at the former Nachtigalplatz. The north-eastern section towards Müllerstrasse is named after Anna Mungunda , a Namibian independence activist. The south-western section towards Windhuker Straße will be called Maji-Maji-Allee and thus remind of the Maji-Maji uprising .

architecture

In contrast to large parts of Weddings, the district is characterized by housing developments from the 1920s and 1930s. The Friedrich-Ebert-Siedlung as well as the four buildings erected by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe between Sambesi and Seestrasse on African Street should be mentioned here.

literature

  • Berlin-Wedding ; Verlag Karl Baedeker GmbH Freiburg; 2nd edition 1983; Pp. 34/35
  • Ulrich van der Heyden: On Africa's footsteps in Berlin. Mohrenstrasse and other colonial legacies. Berlin 2008
  • Ulrich van der Heyden: The African Quarter , in: Ulrich van der Heyden, Joachim Zeller (Hrsg.): Colonial metropolis Berlin. A search for traces , Berlin Edition, Berlin 2002, pp. 261–263

Web links

Commons : African Quarter  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ He also planned a “special room” for an annual international exhibition; Landesarchiv Berlin A Rep. 000-02-01, No. 2193 (submission from March 19, 1912) ( Memento of the original from April 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; accessed on December 31, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.berlin-postkolonial.de
  2. ↑ tip-berlin.de: Dispute over street renaming | tip Berlin , accessed October 24, 2015.
  3. ↑ Beyond Wedding. In: Der Tagesspiegel , April 15, 2009.
  4. ↑ Second Africa magazine “African Quarter” published - District Mayor Dr. Christian Hanke is the patron. In: berlin.de
  5. ↑ Gerhard Lehrke: Colonial Heritage . In: Berliner Zeitung , June 1, 2017, p. 9.
  6. ↑ Laura Hofmann: New street names for the African quarter found. In: Der Tagesspiegel . April 11, 2018, accessed April 12, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Landesdenkmalamt Berlin: Housing complex on African Street. In: Landesdenkmalamt Berlin. Retrieved May 13, 2020 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 33 ′ 15 ″  N , 13 ° 20 ′ 19 ″  E