Vienna strips anti-Semite's name from posh road

Published November 20, 2014

City officials have removed the name of a notoriously anti-Semitic former mayor from a street, formally renaming a section of Vienna's posh ring road Universitaetsring.

City Councilor Andreas Mailath Pokorny switched the first street sign Wednesday. What was called Dr. Karl-Lueger-Ring for decades is now named after the city's main university.

Lueger was mayor from 1897 to 1910. While in office, he expanded Vienna's pipeline network supplying the city with alpine spring water, established a public transport system and strengthened social welfare services. But he also openly espoused anti-Semitic sentiments. Adolf Hitler, who lived in Vienna for part of Lueger's tenure, saw him as an inspiration for his hatred of Jews.

Mailath Pokorny acknowledged Lueger's achievements but noted that he was one of the era's main fomenters of "populist anti-Semitism."

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