The Wissmannstraße was named in 1890 after Hermann von Wissmann (1853 – 1905). Wissmann was in the military and, as a colonizer, contributed significantly to the forcible colonization of the Congo through military expeditions. In 1895, Wissmann was appointed governor of the colony of “German East Africa” (present Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi) and ordered taxation of the colonized, which is considered to have triggered the Maji-Maji War. In this war more than 100,000 East African people lost their lives. Wissmann defeated the anti-colonial resistance of the coastal population in the colony of “German East Africa” with the so-called “Wissmann Force” between 1888 and 1890. 

Status of the Renaming

On November 25, 2020, the Berlin-Neukölln district council decided to rename Wissmannstraße into Lucy-Lameck-Straße. Lucy Selina Lameck Somi (1934 – 1993) campaigned as a Tanzanian politician against, among other things, the racist discrimination of the colonially administered health care system. 

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