It took longer in Bayreuth than elsewhere, much longer even. As early as 15 years ago, Bavaria’s largest cities, Nuremberg and Munich, decided not to dedicate a street to the state bishop Hans Meiser. In Upper Franconia’s capital, which is extremely Protestant, they had to gain momentum for this for a long time. Recently, however, the time had come, albeit with an extremely slim majority: 21 city councilors voted in favor of turning Hans-Meiser-Straße into Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Straße – 19 councilors opposed.
Why did this take so long? How one evaluates Meiser’s role in the Nazi era has always been a matter of weighting. Some argue that during Hitler’s time he resisted the incorporation of the state church into the Reich church and was even arrested for it for a short time – as is well known, so many did not dare to do such a thing. For the others, that’s by no means enough to permanently honor someone with a street name – especially when you consider Meiser’s anti-Jewish statements and his not very creditable role during and after the war.
So all Bayreuth renaming debates ended after decades of choking? On the contrary, they could only really be getting started. The cause is less the guaranteed discontent in the previous Meiser-Strasse (residents often consider the inconvenience of a change of address to be unnecessary). Catalyst is more of a statement from a pastor who is in the North Bavarian Courier quote that she sees the Meiser case differently than the majority of the city council. Because: “Then Richard Wagner would also have to die in Bayreuth.” After all, he was a “top Nazi”. uhhh
In turn, others don’t want to let that sit on the gentleman from the hill. Yes, the said person was an anti-Semite (which is documented by a show in Berlin). The local CSU warns that such comparisons – probably meaning: Wagner/Meiser – will open “a barrel”. Especially since the attribution “Ober-Nazi” for someone who died in 1883 was “outrageous”.
It cannot be ruled out that the city is at the beginning of a much longer debate. It would not then be about the name of a tranquil residential street in Bayreuth-West. But about the Richard Wagner Festival.