Students Want to Strip Adolf Hitler of Honorary Citizenship, by Oliver Pieper

 

A few months ago, during a history lesson at Seven Mountains High School in Bad Honnef, a 10th grade class had the idea to make history themselves. By submitting a motion, the class wanted to ensure that the town of 25,000 near Bonn in western Germany officially renounced one of its honorary citizens, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Kathi, Lilly, Ronja, Mia and Selin, five students who spoke on behalf of the class, wanted to make a clear statement against right-wing ideas, together with their teacher Thomas Rott.

“We live in this city, so of course its history also concerns us. Then we asked ourselves whether we could use our influence today to change something about history and Hitler’s honorary citizenship. We were also introduced to the topic by our teacher, and each of us simply wrote an email to the mayor,” they said in a statement.

Their initiative resulted in a petition that was eventually signed by over 1,363 people, 5% of Bad Honnef residents, and thus the number required for the city council to vote on the initiative. It was a huge success for the students who collected signatures, rang countless doorbells, and educated the public.

Kathi, Lilly, Ronja, Mia and Selin with Thomas RottKathi, Lilly, Ronja, Mia and Selin with Thomas Rott
“It’s never too late to correct a mistake,” history teacher Thomas Rott told his students. Image: Oliver Pieper/DW

“Most of the people we spoke to didn’t know anything about Hitler’s honorary citizenship, and many signed immediately,” the five students said. “If someone had told us a year ago that we could accomplish something as big as a small school class, we wouldn’t have believed it. But more and more right-wing extremists are on the move, especially on social media, and we have to fight against that.”

Hitler was an honorary citizen of 4,000 German cities
Bad Honnef made Hitler an honorary citizen on April 5, 1933, one month after the Nazi Party (NSDAP) won the Reichstag elections. The town was one of the first to take this step, and by 1934, a total of 4,000 towns and villages had done so.

Although the Nazi dictator’s honorary citizenship automatically expired upon his suicide on April 30, 1945, Bad Honnef has not yet officially revoked it.

Mayor Otto Neuhoff was visibly pleased with the students’ commitment.

“We are proud of the students. It’s a great initiative,” he said. “They also learned that change through participation is possible in politics. And because they learned that you are not a victim of anything in a democracy, but that you can be involved and have a say in how things are run at the municipal level.”

Black and white photographic portrait of Adolf Hitler Black and white photographic portrait of Adolf Hitler
Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was an honorary citizen of thousands of cities and municipalitiesImage: akg-images/picture-alliance
Coming to terms with history
In recent years, many communities have distanced themselves from Hitler as honorary citizens, mainly as a signal against a social and political shift to the right. According to historian Thomas Schlemmer of the Institute of Contemporary History Munich-Berlin, this reassessment of history in Germany occurs in waves.

The first wave began immediately after the end of World War II. “In 1945 and 1946, we were faced with a breakdown in the political system, which in turn had to do with the Allies, but also with a widespread demand on the part of the political elites,” he said. “This was also accompanied by the renaming of streets and squares: there was hardly a municipality without an Adolf Hitler street or square. However, this anti-Nazi impulse in the immediate post-war period died out more or less quickly between 1948 and 1950.”

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Then, Schlemmer said, a reversal of the perpetrators and victims occurred in Germany. The many people responsible for Nazi atrocities suddenly saw themselves as innocent people who had been persuaded by a small group of Nazi criminals around Hitler to do things they didn’t really want to do.

Germany has put the reassessment of its history on hold for decades. “But at the same time, the debate about the Nazi past received a new impetus in January 1979 with the broadcast of the US series Holocaust, also known as the New History movement,” the historian said. “A combination of academically trained historians and lay people such as schoolchildren and teachers suddenly wanted to know how the Nazi era unfolded in our country.”

Taking the First Important Step

Around this time, 40 years ago, Bad Honnef also made the first failed attempt to distance itself from its infamous honorary citizen. Now, a full 91 years after the honor was bestowed, the city finally wants to put an end to this inglorious chapter.

For Schlemmer, this is an expected step, of great symbolic value, an expression of a process underway throughout Germany.

This article was originally written in German

 

https://www.dw.com/en/students-want-to-strip-adolf-hitler-of-honorary-citizenship/a-70155685

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