The Austrian city of Linz will formally change the name of a street from „Porcheweg” due to the carmaker, Ferdinand Porsche’s alleged acceptance of the Nazi ideology.
An Austrian city will rename a street honouring carmaker Ferdinand Porsche due to his „problematic links with Nazism,” reports the EuroNews.
The street’s former name was „Porscheweg,” honouring the name of the carmaker, Ferdinand Porsche. The city council in Linz is expected to formally rename the street next week.
The founder of the luxury automobile manufacturer, who died in 1951, has been accused of „accepting” Nazi ideology and the persecution of Jews. In 2019, Linz councillors commissioned six experts to investigate the matter.
„Porsche played a central role in the National Socialism war economy and actively promoted the forced labour of prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates,” the city claimed in a statement. „[He] accepted their deaths and the deaths of their children due to the inhumane conditions in the camps,” it added.
The manufacturer Porsche told the Kurier newspaper that it did not support the renaming decision. „In our view, erasing history in public space does not lead to any social progress,” it said.
In addition to the „Porsche Road,” three other streets honouring controversial figures are to be renamed in Linz as part of a long-ignored remembrance initiative. No new names have yet been decided.