German
Neighborhoods and Street Names
It was
probably less than a coincidence that the great Mies van der Rohe exhibition
of 2002 was shown in the Museum of Contemporary Art, the main entrance
of which is located on the Mies van der Rohe Way. The selection of Chicago
for this presentation shows the importance of this city for the last German
Bauhaus director. Or rather the other way around - considering the number
and visibility of constructions that Mies heaped on his famous steel skeletons
it should have been possible to name a bigger street after him. The founder
of the International Style, however, is in good company. Within walking
distance you can find streets bearing the names of his other famous countrymen
like Goethe and Schiller.
To view additional
pictures by Bert Lachner please click the above photo.
A collection of street names (and neighborhoods, for that matter) related to names of Germans has yet to be compiled. In this respect, the German Heritage is well presented and, if people only knew, is fully alive in the Chicago neighborhoods. One has only to trace the many monuments and statues in honor of famous German literary figures, musicians, scientists
and
freedom fighters: Goethe, Schiller and Beethoven, (Lincoln Park), Lessing,
(Washington Park), Fritz Reuter, (Humboldt Park), Theodor Thomas, (Grant
Park), Alexander von Humboldt, (Humboldt Park), the Bronze Candelabra
in the historic Union Station and the Haymarket Martyrs' Monument, a National
Historic Landmark, located in the German part of the Waldheim Cemetery
in Forest Park, Illinois. To some extent this is also true for Chicago
schools bearing German names, although unfortunately only a few of them
are still teaching the German language. Also in other respects the German
presence is now little more than a name, unlike other ethnic groups; Germans
do not even sport a museum of their own in the whole of Chicagoland. Today
few people “realize that at one time Chicagoans of German extraction
were more numerous than any other nationality, including American”.
With the disappearing German presence in the neighborhoods, even at traditional German Lincoln Avenue, it becomes important to remember and to revive the landmarks that used to point to German roots.
With the disappearing German presence in the neighborhoods, even at traditional German Lincoln Avenue, it becomes important to remember and to revive the landmarks that used to point to German roots.
