Do you know where Joachimsthaler Platz is? There are no street signs pointing to him, and there are no postal addresses there either. That’s why only a few know the name, although the square is located in the heart of City West – namely between Joachimsthaler Straße and Kurfürstendamm. The listed traffic pulpit from the 1950s, which has been out of service since 1962 and is now sometimes used for art projects, has achieved a certain degree of fame.
In the future, the square will be called “Grünfeld-Ecke” and thus commemorate a family of Jewish merchants. This week, the district office of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf initiated the renaming process. City councilor Oliver Schruoffeneger (Greens), who is responsible for public road land, estimates its duration at four to five months. He would like to change the name of the place by November – to match the planned publication date of a book about the Grünfeld family.
The initiative came from the Berlin-Brandenburg trade association. Its general manager Nils Busch-Petersen presented his research on the merchants at an event last year and recently sent an open letter to the district office. It is reminiscent of the former Grünfeld department store on Joachimsthaler Platz, which after opening in 1926 was popularly known as the “Grünfeld-Ecke”. As early as 1873, the family was a pioneer in the mail order business.
The development of City West is completely unthinkable without Jewish life.
Oliver Schruoffeneger (Greens), district councilor in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
In 1919, Heinrich Grünfeld also became the founding president of the Main Association of German Retailers. Already at the beginning of the Nazi era he was massively attacked because of his Jewish origins, in 1933 he gave up the management of the association. The department store was “Aryanized” in 1938 by the Max Kühl company. In 1939 the Grünfeld family emigrated to Palestine.
The development of City West would be “unthinkable” without Jewish life in the 1920s, says City Councilor Schruoffeneger. “This must be made clearer than before in the public space of the district.” The renaming of the square is the “prelude” to this.
Because no address changes are necessary there, the district office does not expect complaints. In addition, Joachimsthaler Strasse will retain its name. The memory of the small Brandenburg town of Joachimsthal and the former Joachimsthal high school in today’s Bundesallee is preserved.
The FDP had campaigned for a Harald-Juhnke-Platz – and also argued that the designation of the Joachimsthaler Platz was dispensable. The FDP parliamentary group submitted an application to the BVV last November. After this was last postponed, party politicians organized a “symbolic renaming of the square” after the entertainer and actor Harald Juhnke, who died in 2005.
The regional FDP parliamentary group leader, Felix Recke-Friedrich, criticizes the fact that the BVV has agreed to a further discussion process in the culture committee as “disrespect for the BVV”. the district office decision. On the other hand, “we naturally support a publicly visible memorial to Jewish fellow citizens who, like the Grünfeld family, have rendered outstanding services to our district”. His group will now work to honor Harald Juhnke elsewhere in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf with a street or square name.
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