Abstract

Which Way to Stalinallee?

In Eastern Europe, tourists should be careful. It may happen that if you leave your hotel you'll never find your street again because it has been renamed. Renaming streets is the game in Moscow, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw. Other people who never forgot the old names are also complaining. They say they have had enough mess without this on top of it. Anyway, the older generations have never stopped using the old street names in private conversation. In Eastern Europe, it is not only the tourist and the letter carrier who will be disturbed. Street names have to be corrected on every identity card and driver's license, and in the files of banks, city councils and other offices. Eastern Europe has never been famous for the speed of its bureaucracy, and with too few computers and too little expertise it will take years for the records to be completed.