There's a famous Berlin street named after a princess that I can't find on here. Why?

 

Since there are so many such streets (among them Luisenstraße, Sophienstraße, and a surprising number of instances of Kaiserin-Augusta-Straße), and I have very limited time to work on this project, I have decided not to prioritise them. The reason is that in general, I prefer not to glorify nobility, and instead would like to focus my efforts on ordinary people who earned their recognition. I especially aim to honour those who were persecuted or killed for some aspect of their beliefs or identity.

 

For the people I do profile, hopefully it goes without saying that I don't necessarily endorse every single thing they stood for.

 

 

I see a street missing. Shall I point this out to you?

 

It's very possibly already on my to-do list, but: yes, feel free! If you can provide some interesting sources about the person's story, even better.

 

 

Why are you using the names of countries that didn't exist at that point, or that no longer exist?

 

Hold on tight, this will be long...

 

Many of the people featured here were born in places like Prussia. The concept of a nation can be a complex one, but I decided early on in the project to refer to cities as they are in the present day. For instance, what was then Schwiebus, Prussia will be called Świebodzin, Poland here — the modern country and endonym.

 

The exception is using the widespread English name where it's available, e.g. Vienna and not Wien. My project is in English and so I don't want to overcomplicate things by having to make decisions like whether I would call it Schwiebus, Preußen (sticking to all German and thus presupposing an imperial German lens on the place, as well as the reader's knowledge of the German names) or Schwiebus, Prussia (German/English mix, illogical and pointless for the intended audience).

 

However, an exception to this, in turn, is for cases of those who perished in concentration camps: using the modern name plus the better-known German name in brackets, e.g. Terezín (Theresienstadt), Czech Republic. I want to nod to its current location but I feel it is unethical to erase the fact the person was murdered by Nazis in this repugnant, systematic way.

 

To take a current example: many Ukrainians, if not most, are asking the world to refer to their capital city as Kyiv (Ukrainian transliteration) and not Kiev (Russian transliteration). Although both languages are widely spoken in Ukraine, the official language — the one that's unique to this culture, which is currently undergoing deliberate attempts at extermination by the other culture — takes precedent.

 

 

What about non-binary or genderfluid people?

 

In light of the political climate around the world, I want to make it crystal clear that I fully support you.

 

The question has come up before on how I recognise certain figures as women. Generally I go by whether their name is typically feminine, and whether they are referred to as "she" on Wikipedia and other resources.

As much as I would prefer not deferring to these assumptions, and not adhering to a gender binary in my work, the term "women" is what I have settled on. On the other hand, I understand many non-gender-conforming people would take issue with being included here (the implication being they are a subset of "women"). In any case, as far as I'm aware, none of the figures I've read about so far have been anything other than cis women (on that note, I'll add that if I do come across any trans women, they will obviously be treated as women).

 

From what I can currently tell, there is no perfect answer — but if you are someone who is not cis and you have any ideas or feedback, feel free to reach out.