Eckard Michels, Birkbeck Reader in German History, has helped resolve a dispute over changing a German street name.
Birkbeck lecturer helps to re-name German street
Eckard Michels, Birkbeck Reader in German History, has helped resolve a dispute over changing a German street name.
Earlier this year, the administrative court of law in Hanover (Verwaltungsgericht Hannover) dismissed the complaint of some citizens living in the Lettow-Vorbeck-Allee in Hanover who had tried to reverse the municipality’s decision to rename the street Namibia-Allee.
Lettow-Vorbeck, a German colonial officer of the First World War is considered by the city of Hanover to be an unsuitable figure to have a street named after him. The Verwaltungsgericht referred in its verdict to Eckard Michels' award-winning biography of Lettow-Vorbeck from 2008 as it shows clearly that Lettow-Vorbeck was involved in war crimes. Similar renaming initiatives have taken place recently in the cities of Wuppertal and Saarlouis albeit without court cases but with considerable local press coverage which always also references Eckard’s biography.
Eckard has also given a radio interview for Bayern Radio II (Bavarian Radio II) on the history of the The French Foreign Legion and the role of the Germans in it within a 20 minutes feature on the institution as it turned 180 in March (founded in 1831). This was based on his book on Germans in the French Foreign Legion 1870-1965.
He is also due to give an interview for Deutschlandfunk (the only nation-wide radio station in Germany) which will be broadcast on 6 July on the history of the Goethe-Institute in Munich which celebrates its 60 anniversary in August 2011.
Eckard Michels teaches on our BA in Languages and History.
