Vienna-Josefstadt: Hamerling Park to Be Renamed Lore Segal Park
Vienna Park Honors Lore Segal, Replacing Controversial Poet's Name
Hamerling Park in Vienna's Josefstadt district will be renamed Lore Segal Park to honor the Jewish writer Lore Segal and distance itself from its current namesake, Robert Hamerling, whose legacy is marked by antisemitism and misogyny.
The park in Vienna's eighth district, currently named after an antisemitic figure, will soon bear the name of the Jewish author Lore Segal. The decision was approved by the Josefstadt district council, with support from the Greens, SPÖ, ÖVP, NEOS, and KPÖ, as announced by the city on Thursday. The move follows years of debate over the park's name.
Hamerling: A Misogynist and Antisemite
Hamerling, a 19th-century writer, filled his works with antisemitic stereotypes. His poetry fervently advocated for the national unification of all Germans, fueling antisemitism in Austria—a climate that ultimately contributed to the Holocaust. His writings were also deeply misogynistic. In 2021, a commission of historians classified all sites named after Hamerling as "cases requiring discussion."
Segal's Childhood in Josefstadt
The proposal will now go to the Vienna City Council, where the final renaming will be decided by the Cultural Committee. District head Martin Fabisch expressed satisfaction with the change: "With Lore Segal Park, we honor a Jewish writer whom Josefstadt can be proud of—and at the same time, we dissociate ourselves from the name of an antisemite and misogynist."
Lore Segal was born on March 9, 1928, and grew up in Josefstadt. As a young girl, she played in Hamerling Park almost daily—until the Nazis barred her and other Jewish children from entering. After Austria's Anschluss, her father lost his job, and the Gestapo forcibly evicted the family from their home on Josefstädter Straße.
Escape to Britain and a Career in the U.S.
In 1938, Segal fled to Britain on one of the first Kindertransport convoys, escaping the Holocaust. At just ten years old, she was taken in by foster parents in Liverpool and later studied English literature in London, graduating with honors.
As a young adult, she moved to New York, where she wrote for The New Yorker and published several acclaimed novels. Her work earned numerous awards, and her short story collection Shakespeare's Kitchen was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2008. In 2024–25, the Josefstadt District Museum dedicated an exhibition to her, titled "I Wanted to Love Vienna, But I Didn't Dare," which she attended virtually at its opening. She passed away on October 7, 2024, at the age of 96 in New York.
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