Will the Rommel street in Aalen be renamed?

In Germany, discussions continue about everything that is named after Erwin Rommel. The defenders and supporters of the field marshal are divided in half with his opponents. So far, no place named after Erwin Rommel in Germany has been renamed.

This time in Aalen in 2019, serious discussions began about the renaming of Rommel Street in this city. After numerous disputes in the city administration, finally in February 2020 it was decided not to rename Rommel Street. But this decision was made with some conditions, since the experts did not agree on many points of Rommel's historical assessment.

One of the conditions was to start filling a gap in knowledge about the field marshal in the culture of memory of Aalen, in which Erwin Rommel lived during his school years, and of which he was an honorary citizen. Also mandatory in the school curriculum of grades 9-12 were included lessons about the history of the Nazis and Erwin Rommel, as a supporter and victim of this regime. And finally, at the corner of Rommel Street, it was decided to install four steles: three local famous democrats, after whom the streets in the city are also named, and Erwin Rommel himself. At the same time, the stelae of the democrats must be painted, and the stele of Rommel must be rusty.

The mention of Rommel in the town of Aalen does not end there. In 2021, the mayoral elections were held in Aalen, in which Catherine Rommel, the granddaughter of the field marshal, took part. Her father Manfred Rommel had been mayor of Stuttgart for 22 years and Catherine decided to try her hand at that role in the small town where her grandfather Erwin Rommel was an honorary citizen. Unfortunately, Rommel's name alone was not enough to win, although with 20% she finished second in the election. The victory by a wide margin and with 71% was won by Frederik Brütting.