Afrikanisches Viertel

File:Lüderitzstrasse Berlin 2015.jpg; now named Cornelius-Fredericks-Straße]]

Prior to the First World War, Carl Hagenbeck planned the creation of a new zoo similar to his Tierpark Hagenbeck in Hamburg on the grounds of what is today Volkspark Rehberge, including also a human zoo featuring peoples from Germany's overseas colonies.{{cite web |url=http://www.berlin-postkolonial.de/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78:afrikanisches-viertel&catid=10:mitte&Itemid=16 |title=Blues in Schwarzweiss. Die Black Community im Widerstand gegen kolonialrassistische Straßennamen in Berlin-Mitte |last1=Kopp |first1=Christian |last2=Krohn |first2=Marius |date=n.d. |website=berlin-postkolonial.de |publisher=Berlin Postkolonial e.V. |access-date=2016-09-26 |quote= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140411011629/http://www.berlin-postkolonial.de/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78:afrikanisches-viertel&catid=10:mitte&Itemid=16 |archive-date=11 April 2014 |url-status=dead }}{{Interlanguage link multi|Landesarchiv Berlin|de}} A Rep. 000-02-01, Nr. 2193 (Vorlage vom 19. 3. 1912) The war interrupted these plans, but the streets had largely been named by that point.

A number of streets have been the point of controversy in the African Quarter. In particular, the streets named after Germans who were involved in colonizing parts of Africa, such as Lüderitzstraße, Petersallee, and Nachtigalplatz, which have been the target of occasional renaming initiatives.{{Cite news |title = Straßennamen sind in beiden Städten nicht nur Wegweiser |trans-title=In both towns street names are not just markers |language=German |last=Rietdorf |first=Jasmin |work = Der Tagesspiegel |date = 22 February 2008 |url = http://www.tagesspiegel.de/weltspiegel/reise/koloniale-vergangenheit-strassennamen-sind-in-beiden-staedten-nicht-nur-wegweiser/1170906.html}} These names were criticized as discriminatory relics of colonialism and imperialism, honoring colonial figures who have since undergone historical re-evaluation.{{cite news |last=Rechel |first=Ulrike |date=2014-10-24 |title=Streit um Straßenumbenennungen |url=http://www.tip-berlin.de/streit-um-strassenumbenennungen/ |newspaper=tip |location=Berlin |access-date=2016-09-27 |archive-date=1 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001174422/http://www.tip-berlin.de/streit-um-strassenumbenennungen/ |url-status=dead }} In 1986, Petersallee was re-dedicated to Hans Peters, a resistance fighter against Nazism, but the name remained unchanged. New names were agreed on in 2018: Petersallee will be split and its successors named after the Maji Maji Rebellion and Anna Mungunda, Lüderitzstraße from 2 December 2022 bears the name of Cornelius Frederiks, and Nachtigalplatz is re-named Manga-Bell-Platz, after Emily and Rudolf Duala Manga Bell.{{cite news |url=https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/bezirke/spandau/berlin-mitte-neue-strassennamen-fuers-afrikanische-viertel-gefunden/21163352.html |title=Neue Straßennamen fürs Afrikanische Viertel gefunden |work=Der Tagesspiegel |date=11 April 2018 |first=Laura |last=Hofmann |access-date=20 December 2020}}

Since the late 1990s, over 1,000 African immigrants have moved to the African Quarter (predominantly from Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria), for an estimated total of 2,500 citizens of various African nations officially residing in the quarter, although this figure does not include naturalized African immigrants or their children.{{cite news |last=Haruna |first=Hadija |date=2009-04-15 |title=Jenseits von Wedding |url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/stadtleben/afrikanisches-viertel-jenseits-von-wedding/1496556.html |newspaper=Der Tagesspiegel |location=Berlin |access-date=2016-09-27 }} Of Berlin's 20,000 legally registered residents of African heritage, a large portion lives in Wedding and neighboring Tiergarten.{{cite press release |author= |date=2009-02-06 |title=Zweites Afrika-Magazin "Afrikanisches Viertel" erschienen Bezirksbürgermeister Dr. Christian Hanke ist Schirmherr |url=http://www.berlin.de/ba-mitte/aktuell/presse/archiv/20090206.1305.119894.html |location=Berlin |publisher=berlin.de |access-date=2016-09-27}}

Many of the buildings in the Afrikanisches Viertel date back to the 1920s and 1930s. The area is also home to the {{Interlanguage link multi|Friedrich-Ebert-Siedlung|2=de|3=Friedrich-Ebert-Siedlung (Wedding)|preserve=1}}, as well as four buildings along Afrikanische Straße between Sambesistraße and Seestraße designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

• Berlin-Wedding; Verlag Karl Baedeker GmbH Freiburg; 2nd ed. 1983; pp. 34–35
• Ulrich van der Heyden: Auf Afrikas Spuren in Berlin. Die Mohrenstrasse und andere koloniale Erblasten. Berlin 2008
• Ulrich van der Heyden: Das afrikanische Viertel, in: Ulrich van der Heyden, Joachim Zeller (pub.): Kolonialmetropole Berlin. Eine Spurensuche, Berlin Edition, Berlin 2002, pp. 261–263

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• [http://www.taz.de/!5175370/ Wedding: Das afrikanische Viertel.] In: Die Tageszeitung, 24 September 2008
• [http://www.freedom-roads.de/index.htm koloniale straßennamen | postkoloniale erinnerungskultur]
• [http://www.pro-afrikanisches-viertel.de/ Initiative Pro Afrikanisches Viertel]

{{Coord|52.55|N|13.34|E|display=title|type:city_region:DE-BE}}

Category:Localities of Berlin