Across Eastern Europe, the addresses of Russian embassies are being changed as a form of protest against the war in Ukraine. In the Latvian capital, Riga, the section of Antonijas Street where the Russian embassy is located is set to be renamed Ukrainian Independence Street. And in Vilnius, Lithuania, the previously unnamed road on which the embassy sits (the address for which used to refer to the nearest main street) has now become Ukrainos Didvyrių g: Ukrainian Heroes Street. 

Historical events are inscribed into many urban landscapes. As part of an international multidisciplinary research project, we have studied the changing patterns of street renaming in East Germany and Poland over the past 100 years. 

We documented all street-name changes in three cities and towns of various sizes in both countries: Leipzig, Annaberg-Buchholz and Frankfurt (Oder) in Germany; Poznań, Zbąszyń and Słubice in Poland. We found that when a new regime comes to power, it usually asserts its symbolic control over public space by renaming streets that referred to the values and heroes of its predecessors.

Commemorative street naming

Names in medieval town centres are generally quite literal. They reflect the typical occupation of their erstwhile medieval inhabitants or the salient characteristics of the street itself. In Frankfurt (Oder), we have Badergasse (‘physicians’ alley’) and Zur Schmiedegasse (‘at the smiths’ alley’). In Poznań Ul Dominikańska is located by the Dominican church while ul Wielka, which translates as ‘large street’, was one of the broadest streets leading from the city gates to the main market square.

In the 19th century, commemorative street naming took precedence. The many instances of Frederick’s Street in former Prussian territories refers to one of the seven kings of Prussia called Frederick or Frederick William. Beyond monarchs and military commanders, acclaimed writers, painters, composers, scientists and industrialists also took their place on street signs. 

Together in the cities that we looked at, these names form a nationalist cultural canon which is almost exclusively German/Polish and male. Featuring them prominently as street names effectively encodes – or inscribes – that cultural tradition into the cityscape.