Austrian town to change two streets named after Nazi supporters

Published Jul 04, 2025, 07:27 AM

Updated Jul 04, 2025, 11:02 AM

VIENNA – The Austrian home town of Adolf Hitler has decided to rename two streets commemorating Nazis following years of complaints by activists, officials said on July 3.

Austria is regularly criticised for not fully acknowledging its history. Annexed in 1938 by Hitler’s Germany, it was only from the late 1980s that the country began to examine its own responsibility in the Holocaust.

Numerous places and streets throughout Austria have been renamed, including one in the city of Linz, named after car company founder Ferdinand Porsche because of his Nazi past.

Hitler’s home town Braunau decided late on July 2 to rename two streets named after Hitler associate Josef Reiter and propagandist Franz Resl, municipal councillor Martina Schaefer told AFP.

“There was a secret vote regarding the Josef Reiter and Resl streets – 28 elected officials voted in favour and nine against,” Ms Schaefer said of the opposition Social Democrats.

Braunau’s municipal government, led by the conservatives, which also rule the country, did not respond to a request for comment.

The Austrian Mauthausen Committee, which has long pushed for the streets to be renamed, welcomed a “decision with symbolic significance”.

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/austrian-town-to-change-two-streets-named-after-nazi-supporters