Mohrenstraße
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Mohrenstraße, or Mohrenstrasse (see ß), is a street in central Berlin. It runs from west to east between
Wilhelmstraße Wilhelmstraße, or Wilhelmstrasse (see ß; ; ) is a major thoroughfare in the central Mitte and Kreuzberg districts of Berlin, Germany. Until 1945, it was recognised as the centre of the government, first of the Kingdom of Prussia, and lat ...
and , and partially forming the southern edge of
Gendarmenmarkt The is a square in Berlin and the site of an architectural ensemble that includes the Berlin concert hall, along with the French and German Churches. In the centre of the square stands a monumental statue of poet Friedrich Schiller. The ...
. The
Berlin U-Bahn The Berlin U-Bahn (; short for , "underground railway") is a rapid transit system in Berlin, the capital and largest city of Germany, and a major part of the city's public transport system. Together with the Berlin S-Bahn, S-Bahn, a network of ...
station
Mohrenstraße Mohrenstraße, or Mohrenstrasse (see ß), is a street in central Berlin. It runs from west to east between Wilhelmstrasse, Wilhelmstraße and , and partially forming the southern edge of Gendarmenmarkt. The Berlin U-Bahn station Mohrenstraß ...
is located at its western end, and is served by the . A number of buildings in the street date to the mid-19th century (''
Gründerzeit The (; ) was a period of Economic history of Europe (1000 AD–present), European economic history in mid- and late-19th century German Empire, Germany and Austria-Hungary between Industrialization in Germany, industrialization and the great P ...
'') or were reconstructed after World War II, and are protected historic buildings. In August 2020, the borough assembly of
Berlin-Mitte Mitte (; German for "middle" or "center") is a central section () of Berlin, Germany, in the eponymous Boroughs of Berlin, borough () of Mitte. Until 2001, it was itself an autonomous district. Mitte proper comprises the historic center of Old ...
suggested that the borough authority rename the street ''Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße'', honoring Anton Wilhelm Amo, the first African to receive a doctorate from a German university.


Name

The German word '' Mohr'' (pl. ''Mohren''), or moor in English, was commonly used in Europe to describe Africans and/or Muslims in
pre-colonial Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...
period from the 16th to early 18th century. The word is possibly derived from the Latin ''Maurus'' and originally denoted the North African
Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
peoples, but came to be used about the (equally Berber) Muslim rulers of medieval Spain and Portugal, then Arabs or Muslims in general and eventually black Africans. A Mohrenstraße or Mohrenplatz also exists in a few other cities. More widespread, the word ''Mohr'' is part of the names of numerous historical houses or traditional companies such as inns and breweries in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and in some cases in Luxemburg, the Czech Republic and Poland. Over 100 pharmacies called ''Mohren-Apotheke'' exist or have existed. Often, these were named after a
house mark A house mark was originally a mark of property, later also used as a family or clan emblem, incised on the facade of a building, on animals, in signet and similar in the farmer and burgher culture of Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic co ...
depicting a blackamoor or
Moor's head A Moor's head, also known as a Maure, since the 11th century, is a symbol depicting the Human head, head of a Blackamoor (decorative arts), black moor. The term Moors, moor came to define anyone who was African and Muslim. Origin The precise or ...
figure. Some establishments have changed their names after being subject to "shitstorms" (a word commonly used in German for
social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
based negative campaigns). The Drei Mohren Hotel in Augsburg was assumed to be named after three visiting
Abyssinia Abyssinia (; also known as Abyssinie, Abissinia, Habessinien, or Al-Habash) was an ancient region in the Horn of Africa situated in the northern highlands of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea.Sven Rubenson, The survival of Ethiopian independence, ...
n monks in 1495, but in 2020 renamed in Hotel Maximilian's after a campaign by the local
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
youth group. Also in 2020, the
Mohrenbrauerei The Mohrenbrauerei Vertriebs KG is a brewery in Dornbirn in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. It is Vorarlberg's oldest brewery. With a total market share of 47.2 percent in the gastronomy and retail sectors, in 2013, the Mohrenbrauerei was the ...
in
Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( ; ; , , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the second-highest popu ...
, after receiving smears, agreed to change its brand logotype, but declined to change its name which was derived from its founder in 1784, Joseph Mohr. The dictionary ''
Duden The Duden () is a dictionary of the Standard High German language, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880, and later by Bibliographisches Institut GmbH, which was merged into Cornelsen Verlag in 2022. The Duden is updated regularly with ...
'' has since 2012 described the word as often being seen as discriminatory, and since 2019 as "obsolete, today discriminatory" (''veraltet, heute diskriminierend)'', although others dispute this view and argue that the use of the word in historical contexts isn't discriminatory. A number of explanations have been proposed for the street name.


Named for a black resident

In 1834, Leopold ''
Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , ) and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in ...
'' von Zedlitz wrote "it has been related that the street was named for a ''Mohr'', who was in the service of the Margrave of Schwedt, and whose lord's generosity allowed him to build a house here."


Named for several black residents

In 1885, Hermann Vogt described the street as "created during the establishment of
Friedrichstadt Friedrichstadt (; ; ; ; ) is a town in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the river Eider approx. 12 km (7 miles) south of Husum. History The town was founded in 1621 by Dutch settlers. Duk ...
, it received its name from the ''Mohren'' that Fredrick William I received from the Dutch and quartered in this street, so they could be posted from here to the individual regiments as
Janissaries A janissary (, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms, adopted du ...
." Fredrick William I ascended to the throne in 1713 and is documented as having planned the "acquisition of 150 ''Mohren''" in 1714, which dates this theory to no earlier than around 1715. This explanation is an anachronism; the street had already been named in 1707.


Named for colonial-era slaves

During the era of Brandenburg-Prussian colonial rule of the
Brandenburger Gold Coast The Brandenburger Gold Coast, later Prussian Gold Coast, was a colony of Brandenburg-Prussia, later the Kingdom of Prussia, on the Gold Coast. The Brandenburg colony existed from 1682 to 1701, after which it became a Prussian colony from 1701 ...
, boys and young men were taken to Berlin and made to work as
military musicians A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily Weapon, armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable ...
, '' Kammermohren'', or
valet A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, ''valet de chambre'' was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "va ...
s. In 1680,
Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg Frederick William (; 16 February 1620 – 29 April 1688) was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia, from 1640 until his death in 1688. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he is popularly known as "th ...
tasked his captain Bartelsen with bringing six slaves of ages 14, 15, and 16 years to Berlin. In 1682, he ordered Captain Voss to return with twenty large slaves from 25 to 30 years and twenty boys from 8 to 16 years. Contemporary works also depict the presence of people with dark skin in Berlin, such as Peter Schenk's colorized copper engraving "''Schwarzer Militärmusiker am Brandenburger Hof''" (1696–1701) and Paul Carl Leygebe's painting of the " Tobacco roundtable of Fredrick I in Prussia", dated to 1709/1710, which depicts three young black men and a servant with a turban in Drap d'Or room of the
Berlin Palace The Berlin Palace (), formerly known as the Royal Palace (), is a large building adjacent to Berlin Cathedral and the Museum Island in the Mitte area of Berlin. It was the main residence of the Electors of Brandenburg, Kings of Prussia and Ge ...
.


Named for an African delegation

Historian offers the theory that Mohrenstraße was not named with racist or colonial connotations; instead, he proposes that it pertains to a delegation of Africans from Brandenburg's colony of Großfriedrichsburg (present-day
Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
). In van der Heyden's telling, a delegation of 26 Africans, led by Chief Janke, visited Berlin from the village of Pokesu (present-day
Princes Town, Ghana Princes Town or Pokesu is located 5 km east of Fort St. Antonio on Manfro Hill in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region of south Ghana, Africa. It lies between Axim to the west and Sekondi-Takoradi to the east. On 1 January 168 ...
) and stayed at an inn outside of Berlin's city walls. The delegation was paying a courtesy visit to
Frederick William The name Frederick William usually refers to several monarchs and princes of the Hohenzollern dynasty: * Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (1620–1688) * Frederick William, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1675–1713) * Frederick William I of ...
after the signing of treaties establishing the protectorate. The delegates spent four months in Berlin and visited the palace on foot. The path used by the delegation acquired the name "Mohrenweg" (''
Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...
Road''). Christian Kopp, an activist for Berlin Postkolonial e. V., suggests that Ulrich van der Heyden fails to provide evidence supporting his theory. Kopp states that Chief Janke visited Berlin accompanied only by his valet, to subordinate himself to Fredrick William. Kopp states that this visit occurred in 1684, over twenty years before the official naming of Mohrenstraße, citing Richard Schück; no documentation attests to Janke's lodgings. The city plan drawn by Johann Bernhardt Schultz in 1688 does not depict a "Mohrenweg" or inn directly outside the city walls.


History


17th and 18th century

The street was created around the year 1700 during the construction of
Friedrichstadt Friedrichstadt (; ; ; ; ) is a town in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the river Eider approx. 12 km (7 miles) south of Husum. History The town was founded in 1621 by Dutch settlers. Duk ...
, now a historical neighborhood in central Berlin. The street originally ended at Mauerstraße. , at the western end of the street, was the center of the German ready-made garment industry prior to the World War II. (
Table of contents A table of contents (or simply contents, abbreviated as TOC), is a list usually part of the Book design#Front matter, front matter preceding the main text of a book or other written work containing the titles of the text's sections, sometimes with ...
)
At the end of May 1707, Mohrenstraße was officially named, along with the other streets in Friedrichstadt. This is sourced to a history of Friedrichstadt written by Joachim Ernst Berger (1666–1734), who was a Lutheran pastor from 1697–1732 in Friedrichstadt, containing the following note: "In 1707, at the end of the aforementioned month ay the alley were for the benefit of the people.") The 9th street name listed is "''Mohren-Straße''". Other sources support the naming during the reign of Friedrich I (1688–1713), who was also ruler of the West African colony of
Groß Friedrichsburg Gross or Groß in German is the correct spelling of the surname under German orthographic rules. In Switzerland, the name is spelled Gross. Some Germans and Austrians also use the spelling with "ss" instead of "ß". It is a surname of German, Pru ...
(present day Ghana) and who planned the construction of
Friedrichstadt Friedrichstadt (; ; ; ; ) is a town in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the river Eider approx. 12 km (7 miles) south of Husum. History The town was founded in 1621 by Dutch settlers. Duk ...
.
Christoph Friedrich Nicolai Christoph Friedrich Nicolai (18 March 1733 â€“ 11 January 1811) was a German writer, bookseller, critic, and regional historian, who authored satirical novels and travelogues. Life Nicolai was born in Berlin, where his father, (d. 175 ...
wrote about the area encompassing Mohrenstraße and
Gendarmenmarkt The is a square in Berlin and the site of an architectural ensemble that includes the Berlin concert hall, along with the French and German Churches. In the centre of the square stands a monumental statue of poet Friedrich Schiller. The ...
: "The first construction took place in 1688, from what is today Kronenstraße to Jägerstraße, on the grounds of the former princely
folwark ''Folwark'' is a Polish word derived from the German ''Vorwerk''. A Folwark or Vorwerk is an agricultural estate or a separate branch operation of such an estate, historically a serfdom-based farm and agricultural enterprise (a type of latif ...
and gardens ..In 1706, the streets received their names." The Berlin city plan of 1710, which was a later reconstruction, mentions the street by name. The street was later extended to connect to Zietenplatz and the adjacent
Wilhelmplatz Wilhelmplatz was a square in the Mitte district of Berlin, at the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Voßstraße. The square also gave its name to a Berlin U-Bahn station which has since been renamed Mohrenstraße (Berlin U-Bahn), Mohrenstraße. A numb ...
.


19th century

From 1837-1838,
Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
lived at Mohrenstraße 17 during his studies. The house was fitted with a memorial plaque in September 1929, by request of the
SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...
, which was removed in July 1933 after the
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
came to power.


21st century

Ever since the
1990s File:1990s decade montage.png, From top left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American jets fly over burning oil fields in the 1991 Gulf War; the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993; the World ...
there has been a public debate about changing the street name that was viewed as
racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
, referring to it euphemistically as "M-Straße". For example, The Afro-German
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
and activist
May Ayim May Ayim (3 May 1960 – 9 August 1996) is the pen name of May Opitz (born Brigitte Sylvia Andler); she was an Afro-German poet, educator, and activist. The child of a German dancer and Ghanaian medical student, she lived with a white German fos ...
is seen in the
documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
''May Ayim: Hoffnung im Herz'' ("May Ayim: Hope in My Heart"; 1997) protesting in front of the
U-Bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four systems and 14 systems. The , commonly understood to stand for ('underground railway'), are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while the or ('city rapid railway') are c ...
station bearing the street name. In August 2020, a majority in the Berlin-Mitte borough assembly recommended to the borough authority that Mohrenstraße should be renamed Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße, honoring Anton Wilhelm Amo, the first African to receive a doctorate from a German university. In July 2023, the Berlin administrative court rejected claims filed by historian
Götz Aly Götz Haydar Aly (; born 3 May 1947) is a German journalist, historian and political scientist. Life and career Aly was born in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg. He is a patrilineal descendant of a Turkish convert to Christianity named Friedrich ...
and residents who objected to the name change. In July 2024, a year after the original administrative court decision, ''
Der Tagesspiegel (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington, D.C., and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, since reunificati ...
'' reported that an appeal before a superior court was still pending that prevented the name change from being finalized.


Further reading

* *


External links


Straßennamenlexikon des Luisenstädtischen Bildungsvereins


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohrenstrasse Streets in Berlin Mitte African diaspora in Germany