Historians and Jewish groups press Linz to rename street

Historians and representatives of the Jewish community are calling for a reassessment of the street named after Franz Dinghofer in Linz, criticising what they say was a lenient treatment of his Nazi and antisemitic past, ORF reported on Tuesday.

In July, a group of prominent historians, cultural figures and church representatives urged Linz Mayor Dietmar Prammer of the Social Democratic Party to begin the renaming process. Now, historians Helmut Konrad, a former rector of the University of Graz, and Gabriella Hauch have reviewed a report by the Linz historians’ commission.

They said the report presented the facts correctly but interpreted them consistently in a “soft to flattering” way, in line with the intentions of the commissioners: the City of Linz and then-mayor Klaus Luger. The city classified Dinghofer as a category 2 compromised figure. Only people in category 1 trigger the renaming of streets.

The Jewish communities of Linz and Vienna have also backed the call for a new name. Willi Mernyi, chairman of the Mauthausen Committee Austria, said the Jewish community’s voice carried particular weight in the debate. He called on Prammer to reassess the matter, saying the historians’ findings made keeping the name even harder to justify.

Robert Eiter of the Upper Austrian Network against Racism and Right-Wing Extremism said the street name was unconstitutional. Article 9 of the State Treaty requires Austria to remove “all traces of Nazism” from public life, a duty that also applies to streets named after people compromised by the Nazi regime, constitutional expert Markus Vašek said. Dinghofer was a Nazi Party member and was involved in the theft of Jewish property.

One proposal is to name the street after the late Bishop Maximilian Aichern. Gabriele Hofer-Stelzhammer of Catholic Action Upper Austria said a three-year “cooling-off period” mentioned by Prammer was unnecessary, describing Aichern’s life as exemplary.