The musician Rio Reiser (“King of Germany”, “Everything Lies”) now has a place in Berlin named after him. The small Heinrichplatz in the district of Kreuzberg was officially renamed on Sunday. Reiser (1950-1996) was born as Ralph Christian Möbius in Berlin. His life and career were closely linked to the city and the trendy neighborhood for many years.
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) also came to the celebration with several thousand people and concerts. In the 1980s she was the manager of the political rock band Ton Steine Scherben (“Break what breaks you”, “No power for nobody”) for a few years, and Reiser was the singer before his solo career. For a while, Roth and Reiser lived with other musicians in a flat-sharing farmhouse in Fresenhagen, North Friesland.
For Roth, the renaming is a symbolic return of Rio Reiser to a district that was his home for years. She also recalled the singer’s commitment. So he confessed to his homosexuality “in an excluding time”, which was “damn brave”. “For Rio, the personal has always been political,” Roth said.
The square that now bears Reiser’s name is on Oranienstraße with many pubs, bars and clubs in the middle of SO 36. That’s what the area is still called by many, the name came from the old postal delivery area of Southeast 36.
In Berlin, the idea of honoring Rio Reiser accordingly had been around for a long time. The plans of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district office were published in the official gazette in April 2021. There were four objections from local residents. These were rejected as inadmissible in October.
The decision was controversial, for example because the male-dominated list of streets and squares should actually be loosened up by women’s names. The popular square in the scene was previously called Heinrichplatz after Heinrich of Prussia (1781-1846), a younger brother of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. (1770-1840).
The M29 bus line, which is also popular with many Berlin tourists, has directly followed the change in Kreuzberg. At the same time, the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) renamed their stop from Heinrichplatz to Rio-Reiser-Platz.
