The people of Darmstadt chose a square in the Paulusviertel to commemorate the theologian Martin Niemöller, who died in 1984 and was the first president of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN).
The location at the junction of Hoffmannstrasse and Hobrechtstrasse with Ohlystrasse fits because it is very close to the Pauluskirche and the Protestant church administration.
And the date for the official unveiling of the signs, which was carried out on Monday by Mayor Jochen Partsch (Die Grünen) and Church President Volker Jung, was not chosen by chance.
Markus Schug
Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.
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Finally, on September 30, the founding of the EKHN 75 years ago, which Niemöller headed from 1947 to 1964, will be remembered.
According to Partsch, the magistrate was very happy to follow the suggestion from the citizenship, which the advisory board for street naming also agreed to.
After all, it is important to honor the evangelical theologian "for his tireless commitment to peace" in this way.
The pacifist and resistance fighter, who died in Wiesbaden at the age of 92 and who, as a former officer, initially had a positive attitude towards the idea of the Führerstaat, was himself imprisoned in concentration camps set up by the National Socialists from 1937 to 1945.
In the post-war period he was all the more committed to the peace and Easter march movements.
Disarmament and the end of nuclear armament were central themes that he represented.
The day after his 85th birthday, the Martin Niemöller Foundation was established, which to this day is committed to "peace through understanding and detente".
Referring to his predecessor, Church President Jung spoke of a “great personality in contemporary German history”.
The newly created Niemöller-Platz in Darmstadt is a great honor for the evangelical church, but at the same time it is also a mandate to “remember his life’s work and his testimony of faith” and, like Niemöller, to work for the peace mission of the gospel.