The association “Spurensuche Harzregion” has asked the city of Bad Harzburg to rename the Rudolf-Huch-Straße to the spa town. The honor for the anti-Semitic and anti-democratic lawyer and writer Huch must finally come to an end, the association asked on Monday. According to a flyer from the German Association of Towns, when naming a street after a person, “the highest and most critical standards” must be applied.
Rudolf Huch (1862-1943) was the older brother of the historian and writer Ricarda Huch. According to the association, he had worked in Bad Harzburg as a lawyer, notary and writer since 1897.
As an author, he represented a latent anti-Semitism from the outset.
In 1932 he called for a dictatorship under Adolf Hitler. In 1933 he joined the NSDAP and signed an oath of allegiance to Hitler.
In exchange, he was admitted to the Academy of Arts, from which his sister Ricarda had resigned in protest against the anti-Jewish policies, criticized by the association. In 1934 Rudolf Huch published the anti-Semitic pamphlet “Israel und Wir”, in which he represented conspiracy theory views and advocated the persecution of Jews and members of the opposition.
The association welcomed the fact that a memorial stone erected in 1965 for Rudolf Huch in the street named after him in 1932 was supplemented by a stele with information about Huch. It remains incomprehensible and inconsistent that the city council has simultaneously decided not to rename the street. epd
