City council approves two new street names in the city centre
At its meeting today, Chemnitz City Council decided to rename two streets in the Neue Johannisvorstadt area (construction sites E3 and E4). In construction site 3, a section of Wiesenstraße will be renamed Hermann-Fürstenheim-Straße and the access road in construction site E4 will be renamed Dr.-Frieda-Freise-Straße.
Neue Johannisvorstadt comprises the city centre area between Bahnhofstraße, Moritzstraße, Theresenstraße and Augustusburger Straße, adjacent to the Johanniskirche/Park of the Victims of Fascism and the TIETZ. This includes construction sites E3 and E4, which are separated by Zschopauer Strasse.
Construction site E3 extends between Moritzstraße, Zschopauer Straße, Bahnhofstraße and Wiesenstraße, directly adjacent to the TIETZ. Tenants and suppliers will be able to access the site via a pedestrian zone (inner courtyard design), which leads into the section of Wiesenstrasse between Moritzstrasse and Bahnhofstrasse. This section of the street will be renamed Hermann-Fürstenheim-Straße, as there is a direct local connection to the historic TIETZ building.
Hermann Fürstenheim was born on 27 December 1877 as the son of a Jewish merchant family in Bahn/Pomerania. He moved from Bamberg to Chemnitz in 1904 and was involved in setting up the first Tietz branch in our city. On 23 October 1913, what was then the largest and most prestigious business premises in Saxony was opened on what was then Poststrasse. Hermann Fürstenheim was the manager of the store until his death. After 1933, business operations were subject to significant restrictions. Advertising in the daily press was no longer permitted and the store was also subject to calls for a boycott. However, it was still possible to avert "Aryanisation". As a former participant in the Great War, Hermann Fürstenheim did not initially feel endangered and did not consider emigrating. In the early hours of 10 November 1938, SA and SS men forced their way into the Fürstenheim family villa at Weststraße 13 and literally executed him in the cellar. His urn was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee.
Construction site E4 is bordered by Augustusburger Straße, Bahnhofstraße, Zschopauer Straße and the OdF park. Internal traffic is accessed via a road between Bahnhofstraße and Augustusburger Straße. This street is named Dr.-Frieda-Freise-Straße in memory of her achievements in the field of school hygiene and welfare work as well as the proximity of her place of work in Chemnitz.
Dr Frieda Freise (born 7 November 1886 in Dissna near Vilnius) became the municipal school doctor in Chemnitz in 1925. She was particularly active in the field of school hygiene and welfare, and was a major supporter of the Chemnitz Mothers' School, founded in 1927 (the first institution of its kind in Saxony), which was located in the rooms of the vocational school for girls at Dresdner Straße 7.
In 1933, Dr Frieda Freise was retired by the Nazi authorities due to her Jewish origins. She initially continued to practise as an employee of a general practice at Zschopauer Straße 173, but found herself increasingly exposed to reprisals. To escape this, Dr Frieda Freise moved to Prutting near Rosenheim, where she witnessed the pogroms of 1938. She died in Rosenheim on 28 November 1938.
The costs for the production and installation of the street name signs were borne by the developer.