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Hitler's honorary citizenship in Hermagor finally revoked!
In April 2025, Adolf Hitler's honorary citizenship in Hermagor will be revoked after 80 years, triggered by a newspaper article.
Hitler's honorary citizenship in Hermagor finally revoked!
Adolf Hitler, a name that weighs heavily in German memory, has been honored as an honorary citizen in many places to this day. A notable case is the Carinthian municipality of Hermagor, which retained Hitler's honorary citizenship until 2011. This was only revised 80 years after the end of the Second World War. The process to revoke this extraordinary honor was initiated by a newspaper article from 1938, which pointed out that Hitler remained in this position despite his serious crimes. According to Krone, this fact was hardly known in Hermagor.
Bernhard Gitschtaler, a political scientist and founder of the associations “Gailtaler Zeitbilder” and “Erinnern Gailtal”, drew public attention to this questionable honor. His commitment shows how important it is to deal with history and promote the culture of remembrance.
The context of honorary citizenship
Honoring Adolf Hitler was not only an issue in Hermagor. In Germany, since Hitler came to power in 1933, many cities and communities have been involved in the history of these controversial honors through official acts. Examples of the awards are the cities of Aachen, Ahrensmoor, Aichach and many others, which gave Hitler honorary citizenship between 1932 and 1933. This recognition was often only abolished decades later, as was the case in Aachen, where honorary citizenship was revoked in 1983 even though it had already expired in 1945. Wikipedia gives numerous examples of such denials.
In total, there are dozens of cities in Germany that made Adolf Hitler an honorary citizen during the Nazi era. These lousy awards are a lasting legacy of a dark past and raise questions about responsibility and coming to terms with National Socialist history. Historical treatises, such as those of the Bundestag, address the political and social dimensions of these honors and their revocation.
The revocation of Hitler's honorary citizenship in Hermagor is a step in the right direction and signals that society must deal intensively with its history. The work of Gitschtaler and other historians is crucial to raising awareness of such historical entanglements.