The market town council of Allersberg (Roth district) had already made the decision in 2021, but now it has been put into action: signs honoring the former SA man Wilhelm Burkhardt were put up in the municipality’s new development area. Burkhardt, who died in 1949, was mayor of the community for a short time after the Second World War; he is said to have made a great contribution to supplying the town at the end of the war.
According to Mayor Daniel Horndasch (independent), the local council had no evidence of his Nazi past at the time of the decision. This only came to light later: Sources show that Burkhardt was briefly a member of the SA in 1934, i.e. Hitler’s paramilitary thugs.
Despite some strong criticism, an application to rename the street, which had only recently been named, was rejected by the local council in July 2023. Instead, the local council commissioned a report to examine not only Burkhardt’s personal history, but Allersberg’s entire local history during the Nazi era.
The mayor recently said in a SZ interview that the Burkhardt signs had been available at the local building yard for a long time. However, it would have taken a long time to set it up in winter. Residents have a right to live on a street with appropriate street signs. A local citizens’ alliance has announced a rally in which they will also protest against the street name.