Vienna to rename boulevard named after anti-Semitic former mayor

After years of heated debate, authorities in the Austrian capital Vienna have decided to re-baptize a stretch of its ring road currently named after the city's former mayor Karl Lueger (1844-1910), an anti-Semitic populist who was idolized by Adolf Hitler. The 'Dr.-Karl-Lueger-Ring', on which the University of Vienna has its main building, will henceforth be called 'Universitätsring', a city official confirmed to the Austrian news agency APA. Although Lueger during his tenure as mayor had modernized the city, he was widely regarded as the "founder of modern anti-Semitism", Social Democratic city official Andreas Mailath-Pokorny said.

A monument in honor of Lueger will remain on the boulevard.

Lueger was mayor of Vienna from 1897 to 1910. Hitler, a Vienna citizen from 1907 to 1913, saw him as an inspiration for his own negative views on Jews. Lueger also advocated racist policies against non-German speaking minorities in Austria-Hungary. According to Amos Elon, "Lueger's anti-Semitism was of a homespun, flexible variety - one might almost say 'gemütlich' [cozy]. Asked to explain the fact that many of his friends were Jews, Lueger famously replied: 'I decide who is a Jew.'"

The leader of the extreme-right Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache, called the renaming of the street "a scandal". Lueger had been a great mayor, he said in reaction, adding: "While for a foreign mass murderer like Ché Guevara Vienna's Socialists are building a monument, a distinguished Viennese mayor is being removed from the street name." However, other parties welcomed the decision, which was taken at the request of Vienna University.

Oskar Deutsch, president of Jewish Community of Vienna, said in a statement: "Anti-Semitic verbal incitement by politicians like Karl Lueger paved the way for the racial anti-Semitism of the Nazis. This should also be a warning to politicians of our day” who speak in “reckless and reprehensible ways with anti-Semitic, racist and xenophobic slogans."