Chicago Translation Company Studies Street Si Follow

During the Second World War, German Americans were extremely self conscious about revealing their identities due to political pressure and anti-nazi sentiment.  In fact, it was common for German Americans to change their names to more American sounding names, like for example, changing their names from Schmidt to Smith.  It was no different with street names in Chicago.  During WWII, there was a wide-spread campaign to change the names of streets with German names to more American sounding names.  For example, the city of Chicago used to have numerous Goethe and Schiller Streets, boulevards and avenues.  These were all changed to the names of American authors or other well-known Americans.

Beginning in 2008, a Chicago translation company began to research the history of street names in Chicago, and found that over 1000 street signs were changed between 1939 and 1945 as a result of anti-German sentiment.  The group will have a display on the history of Chicago street names at the Goethe Institute of Chicago beginning in early 2010.