Berlin-to-Kitchener name change

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Template:Short description Template:Featured article Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Canadian English Template:Infobox referendum

The city of Berlin, Ontario, Canada, changed its name to Kitchener by referendum in May and JuneTemplate:Nbsp1916. Named in 1833 after the capital of Prussia and later the German Empire, the name Berlin became unsavoury for residents after Britain and Canada's entry into the First World War.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, most residents of Berlin and neighbouring Waterloo were of German origin.Template:Refn The towns and their citizens lived peacefully and enjoyed a unique blend of German and British culture. Following Britain and Canada's entry into war against Germany in AugustTemplate:Nbsp1914, German Canadians experienced increasing anti-German sentiment. In early 1916, business and community leaders began pushing for Berlin to either seek a new name or amalgamate with Waterloo. Rising tension in the community culminated in soldiers of the local 118th Battalion ransacking German social clubs and attacking an outspoken German Lutheran preacher.

In a vote characterized by intimidation, the 19Template:NbspMay 1916 referendum on whether to change the city name decided "yes" by a slim margin. A vote held the following month to determine a replacement name saw lower voter turnout. The vote settled on Kitchener, named for the recently deceased British Army officer Horatio Herbert Kitchener. Kitchener prevailed in a tight race over the only serious competitor, Brock – for Isaac Brock, a British military leader in the War of 1812. The city officially changed names on 1Template:NbspSeptember 1916.

Towns across the English-speaking world retreated from their German culture during the First World War, with similar cases seen in the United States and Australia. The Berlin–Kitchener change distinguished itself by the levels of violence and protest. The name change failed to assuage outside suspicion of the city and its German population, propelled partly by opponents unsuccessfully petitioning the Ontario Government to stop the change from proceeding as well as the election of an anti-conscription candidate in Waterloo North in the 1917 federal election. After the war, the city experienced a decline in its German culture with German Canadians being culturally assimilated into the broader Canadian identity.

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Background

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Originally known as Eby's Town, Ebytown, Ben Eby's or Sandhills by the first Mennonites from Pennsylvania to settle in the area,<ref>Template:Harvnb: Eby's Town, Ben Eby's, Sandhills; Template:Harvnb: Ebytown, Ben Eby's, Sandhills.</ref> an influx of German-speaking European immigrants beginning in the 1820s pushed local community leaders Benjamin Eby and Joseph Schneider to change the Upper Canadian hamlet's name to Berlin in 1833.<ref>Template:Harvnb: influx of European German-speakers in 1820s; Template:Harvnb: Benjamin Eby and Joseph Schneider.</ref> In the 1870s, most residents of Berlin and neighbouring Waterloo, Ontario, were of German origin, comprising 73 and 80 per cent of each population, respectively.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn Many Germans immigrated to Canada to escape the conflicts of Europe and were inclusive of the town's Anglo-Saxon population.Template:Sfn Most immigrants arrived before the Völkisch movement spawned in the late 19th century, resulting in a German community less concerned with German nationalism than those who immigrated to western Canada after the 1870s.Template:Sfn Historians John English and Kenneth McLaughlin write that the common background of both employers and employees in Berlin allowed for a softening of racial and social animosity.Template:Sfn

A bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany stands atop a pedestal along the shore of a small lake.
A bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I was dedicated in Berlin's Victoria Park in 1897, pictured here in 1905.

Berliners displayed a simultaneous loyalty to both the British Empire and to their German heritage.Template:Sfn Germans pointed to the relationship between the British and German royal families, such as the marriage of the English Queen Victoria to the German Prince Albert, as a source of pride.Template:Sfn In MayTemplate:Nbsp1871, the towns held a joint German heritage celebration, attracting around 12,000 participants.Template:Sfn The Template:Lang, or "Peace Festival", marked the end of the Franco-Prussian War, resulting in the unification of Germany.Template:Sfn The strength of the British-German relationship was such that the German festival closed with "God Save the Queen".Template:Sfn Historian Geoffrey Hayes writes that the festival – and subsequent Template:Lang, or song festivals – served as a way for German-speaking residents to develop their German-Canadian identity in a way acceptable to other Canadians. The nine Template:Lang held from 1874 to 1912 in Berlin and Waterloo generated positive national press coverage and large crowds of visitors.Template:Sfn

Berlin residents often displayed both the Union Jack and the German flag next to one another.Template:Sfn Visiting royalty and politicians – including the Governor General, the Marquis of Lorne; Princess Louise; the Duke of Connaught; and the former Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia – praised the bonds displayed between the British and German populations of Berlin and Waterloo.Template:Sfn Based on a model by sculptor Reinhold Begas, the community leaders George Rumpel and John Motz dedicated a bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I in Victoria Park in AugustTemplate:Nbsp1897.<ref>Template:Harvnb: based on Reinhold Begas model, Rumpel and Motz; Template:Harvnb: dedicated in AugustTemplate:Nbsp1897.</ref> Residents saw the bust as symbolically representing the bond between Germany and Britain.Template:Sfn Government support for the project was strong, Canadian Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier ensuring the bust entered Canada duty-free.Template:Sfn By the early 20th century, few residents considered themselves wholly German, instead identifying as German-Canadian.Template:Sfn The 1911 census listed 76 per cent of people in the community as being of German origin, most of whom had never been to Germany. Among Waterloo's residents, 90 per cent were born in Canada.Template:Sfn Berliners avidly embraced their German heritage, with celebrations commemorating the birthdays of Otto von Bismarck and the Kaiser typical.Template:Sfn In FebruaryTemplate:Nbsp1914, while celebrating Kaiser Wilhelm II's 55th birthday,Template:Sfn W. H. Schmalz addressed Waterloo's Concordia Club:

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We Germans, even if we are also Canadians, remember this occasion from year to year in order to demonstrate our love and respect for a monarch of whom the world may be proud. We are British subjectsTemplate:Nbsp... but while we proclaim this truth, I might add, to ourselves, we are also prepared to continue to cultivate our beautiful German customs.Template:Sfn{{#if:|

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Template:Anchor World War I

Outbreak

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Britain declared war on Germany on 4Template:NbspAugust 1914.Template:Sfn As a Dominion of the British Empire, Canada automatically entered the war following Britain's declaration.Template:Sfn On 12Template:NbspAugust, the Berliner Journal, a local German-language weekly, implored Germans in Ontario: "Don't allow yourselves to be driven to demonstrations of any kind, avoid argumentsTemplate:Nbsp... Be silent, bear this difficult time with dignity, and show that you are true Germans grateful to the country that accommodated you."Template:Sfn British policy allowed Germans across the Dominion four days to leave, while the German government encouraged the German diaspora to return.<ref>Template:Harvnb, quoted in Template:Harvnb.</ref> The 1911 census counted 393,320 people of German origin living across Canada.Template:Sfn Because the war was being fought in Europe, Berlin residents expected the fighting to have little direct impact on their lives. German social clubs continued to meet and found their proceedings unaffected. Ministers holding religious services in German declared their loyalty to the Canadian war effort.Template:Sfn

Five men stand in a boat, three of whom are wearing bathing suits. A bust of the Kaiser sits between them. A second boat and man can be seen behind them.
Berlin residents retrieving the bust of Kaiser Wilhelm from Victoria Park lake, AugustTemplate:Nbsp1914.Template:Refn Vandals threw the bust into the lake following Britain and Canada's declaration of war against Germany.

Three weeks after Canada's entry into the war, vandals toppled Victoria Park's bust of Kaiser Wilhelm and threw it into the park's lake.Template:Refn Residents retrieved the bust and apprehended the three youths responsible.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn In the months following the outbreak of the war, Berlin's Board of Education voted to end the use of German in schools.Template:Sfn Respected Berlin citizens, including businessman and politician Louis Jacob Breithaupt, held public meetings opposed to the decision.Template:Sfn In his reply to the speech from the throne on 19Template:NbspAugust 1914, Conservative MP Donald Sutherland expressed sympathy to the German people for "the dangers brought upon them by their ruling classes, by their oligarchic, insane, military government."Template:Sfn The same day, Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden stated that people born in Germany and Austria-Hungary and who came to Canada "as adopted citizens of this country, whether they are naturalized or not, are entitled to the protection of the law in Canada and shall receive it", adding that an exception would be made for those aiding and abetting the enemy.Template:Sfn

In early 1915, Waterloo North MP William George Weichel expressed in Canada's House of Commons that German-speaking Canadians could be proud of their cultural heritage while remaining loyal to the Canadian war effort.Template:Sfn The year before, Waterloo and Berlin, measured on a per capita basis, were first and second in Canada, respectively, in individual contributions to the Canadian Patriotic Fund.<ref>Template:Harvnb, quoted in Template:Harvnb.</ref> Of the 60 members of Waterloo's German social club, the Acadian Club, half enlisted in Canada's armed forces. The club hosted events supporting the Canadian Red Cross and the Patriotic Fund.Template:Sfn Local Professor F. V. Riecthdorf proclaimed, "I am a native German and former soldierTemplate:Nbsp... My loyalty is to the British flagTemplate:Nbsp... let our response to the Empire be immediate and sufficient!"Template:Sfn Trying to lessen signs of disloyalty, in MayTemplate:Nbsp1915 the Berlin City Council asked for the appointment of a local Registrar of Enemy Aliens, though this request was denied after being deemed unnecessary.Template:Sfn

Increasing anti-German sentiment

The war led to condemnation of the German tradition in Canada and rising anti-German sentiments.Template:Sfn Actions by the German Empire contributed to anti-German feelings, including the violation of Belgium's neutrality, their use of poison gas, the execution of Edith Cavell, the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, and an apocryphal story of German troops crucifying a Canadian soldier.<ref>Template:Harvnb: poison gas, Lusitania; Template:Harvnb, quoted in Template:Harvnb: Belgian neutrality, poison gas, Lusitania, crucifixtion; Template:Harvnb: Edith Cavell, Lusitania.</ref> In a 1Template:NbspMarch 1916 letter to the Berlin News Record, the chair of the North Waterloo recruiting committee stated: "The fact remains that Berlin was named after the capital of Prussia and is to-day the capital of the German Empire, whence have emanated the most diabolical crimes and atrocities that have marred the pages of history."<ref>Template:Harvnb, quoted in Template:Harvnb.</ref> A fire at Parliament Hill in FebruaryTemplate:Nbsp1916 was falsely assumed to have been set by German arsonists.Template:Sfn Although many accounts of wartime atrocities were later shown to be fabrications and British propaganda, most Canadian citizens took them to be true.Template:Sfn

The use of the German language or the display of German flags became seen as signs of Canadian disloyalty.Template:Sfn Young men, many of them German, were harassed in the street if they had not signed up for military service.<ref>Template:Harvnb: harassment by soldiers; Template:Harvnb: "Many of the young men who were expected to enlist in the 118th Battalion had studied the German language and literature in Berlin and Waterloo schools, the majority of them were members of German-language churches that were either neutral or opposed to war with Germany, and most of them were Canadian rather than British born."</ref> Newspapers in Toronto like The Globe and Toronto News made frequent attacks on German-Canadians. A Globe editorial warned that Berliners should be kept under observation, warning of espionage.Template:Sfn To guard against the perceived threat of sabotage and attacks by German-Canadians, 16,000 Canadian soldiers were stationed in Canada; between OctoberTemplate:Nbsp1915 and SeptemberTemplate:Nbsp1916, 50,000 Canadian Expeditionary Force volunteers were kept home to protect against any eventualities.Template:Sfn Beginning in 1914, those Germans deemed a threat to national security were interned;Template:Sfn the Canadian government held discretionary power to intern any civilian they considered either an "agent" or of potential service to an enemy power.Template:Sfn In 1916, roughly 2,000 Germans were interned across Canada, totalling 2,009 by war's end.<ref>Template:Harvnb, quoted in Template:Harvnb: 2,000 in 1916; Template:Harvnb: 2,009.</ref>Template:Refn Though none were interned or jailed in Ontario, Germans across the province experienced a curtailing of their rights and freedoms.Template:Sfn In a FebruaryTemplate:Nbsp1916 diary entry, L. J. Breithaupt lamented, "Public sentiment in Canada is very anti-German & so to some extent against anything connected with or reminding one of Germany."Template:Sfn Canadian military leaders also espoused anti-German sentiments.Template:Sfn In an AprilTemplate:Nbsp1916 letter to the Berlin News Record, Sergeant-Major Granville Blood warned Berliners: "Be British. Do your duty or be despisedTemplate:Nbsp... Be British or be dead."Template:Sfn In a printed address to Canada, Lieutenant Stanley Nelson Dacey wrote:Template:Sfn

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You have creatures in your midst who say success to the Kaiser, and to hell with the King; all I can say is, round up this element into the detention camps, for they are unworthy of British citizenship and should be placed where they belongTemplate:Nbsp... the showing that the physically fit young men of North Waterloo have made is so rotten that I have heard an outside businessman say to a traveller from a Berlin wholesale house, "I'll not buy another damned article manufactured in that German town. So you think I'm going to give money to support a pack of Germans? If I did, I'd be as bad as they."Template:Sfn{{#if:|

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A crowd of soldiers are gathered around a pedestal, the top of which is visible under a vertical banner. The banner bears the phrase "Berlin will be Berlin No Longer". Two soldiers standing below and to the left of the bottom of the banner hold medallions showing the likenesses of Bismark and Von Moltke.
A day after raiding a local German social club, soldiers of the local 118th Battalion gather around the 1897 Peace Memorial in Victoria Park with a banner bearing the phrase "Berlin will be Berlin No Longer", 16Template:NbspFebruary 1916.

In JanuaryTemplate:Nbsp1916, members of the local 118th Battalion campaigned for new recruits but – like most battalions in Canada – found little success. Recruiters resorted to harassing men in the streets who had not signed up for service and forcing them into the recruiting office.Template:Sfn Berlin's local police force found it difficult to control the battalion. When Constable Blevins, a Berlin police officer, attempted to arrest soldier Joseph Meinzinger for harassing citizens, Meinzinger broke Blevins' jaw.Template:Sfn On 15Template:NbspFebruary, a group of Canadian soldiers from the Battalion broke into the Concordia Club, stole memorabilia and destroyed the interior.Template:Sfn An inquiry from Camp Borden led to no charges and instead justified the raid.Template:Sfn

In early 1916, Canada's Militia Minister, Sam Hughes, made a speech in the House of Commons attacking the Reverend C. R. Tappert, a Berlin Lutheran minister.Template:Sfn Tappert became a controversial figure locally for several actions, including his continued use of German in religious services, telling his children to avoid saluting the Union Jack and to not sing "God Save the King", his refusal to contribute to the Patriotic Fund and his public doubting of anti-German propaganda.<ref>Template:Harvnb: services in German; Template:Harvnb: told children; Template:Harvnb: refusal to contribute to the Patriotic Fund, doubting of propaganda.</ref> In an early 1915 letter to the Berlin News Record, he wrote that while he was loyal to Canada his heart remained German.Template:Sfn Hughes accused Tappert of being a "[semi-apologist] for German atrocities and Kaiserism."Template:Sfn Tappert ignored threats to leave the country by 1Template:NbspMarch;Template:Sfn on 4 or 5Template:NbspMarch a group of 60 soldiers broke into Tappert's parsonage and seized him.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn A witness recalled: "Within minutes, Tappert was being dragged behind horses through the streets, his face bloodied, his body twisting as he fell into unconsciousness while the pavement scraped off his flesh."Template:Sfn Magistrate John J. A. Weir warned the two soldiers responsible – Private Schaefer and Sergeant-Major Granville Blood – that he remembered Schaefer being connected to the throwing of the Kaiser Wilhelm bust in the Victoria Park lake in 1914 and he knew Blood had further plans to attack other citizens. Both received suspended sentences of $100 fines (Template:Inflation) and/or six months in prison for the assault.Template:Sfn Hughes blamed Tappert for instigating them with his anti-British sentiments.Template:Sfn Tappert and his family left Berlin on 8Template:NbspMarch.Template:Sfn

Organization of the referendum

The first suggestion of a name change appeared in a letter to the Berlin News Record on 4Template:NbspFebruary 1916. The author, identified only as "A Ratepayer", suggested the Berlin City Council adopt a resolution changing the name of the city.Template:Sfn The initial impetus for changing the city name was borne out of monetary rather than patriotic interests. The start of war brought many contracts to the city's manufacturers, but business leaders worried the "made in Berlin" label on their products would hurt sales. On 8Template:NbspFebruary 1916, the Berlin Board of Trade proposed changing the city's name, hoping that doing so would serve to indicate the city's patriotism to the rest of the Dominion and thereby help local business.Template:Sfn On 11Template:NbspFebruary, the Berlin City Council resolved:Template:Sfn

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Whereas it would appear that a strong prejudice has been created throughout the British Empire against the name "Berlin" and all that the name implies,Template:PbAnd whereas, the citizens of this City full appreciate that this prejudice is but natural, it being absolutely impossible for any loyal citizen to consider it complimentary to be longer called after the Capital of Prussia,Template:PbBe it therefore and it is hereby resolved that the City Council be petitioned to take the necessary steps to have the name "Berlin" changed to some other name more in keeping with our National sentiment.Template:Sfn{{#if:|

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Most at the meeting endorsed the resolution with only one member voting against it.Template:Sfn L. J. Breithaupt attended the meeting and spoke against the resolution, arguing that any name change would have no effect on British victory in the war and that any proposal of changing the city name should instead be put to a popular vote. In his diary he called the event, "an epoch making meeting".Template:Sfn On 21Template:NbspFebruary, organizers of the resolution brought a petition with 1,080 signatures to the city council calling for the name change.Template:Sfn City council voted in favour of petitioning Ontario's Legislative Assembly to have the city's name changed and to possibly amalgamate with Waterloo.Template:Sfn Businessmen and community leaders wrote letters to the Berlin News Record arguing for and against the name change. Many arguments turned toward ad hominem.Template:Sfn At an earlyTemplate:NbspMarch meeting manufacturers and businessmen pushed for the name change. Those opposing the change were threatened with boycotts. The city council offered a reward for the most suitable replacement name and received thousands of suggestions by the end of March.Template:Sfn On 4Template:NbspApril, Berlin's delegation appeared before the Ontario's Legislative Assembly's Private Bills Committee. The committee voted to not report the bill to the Legislature out of fears that violence would break-out in Berlin as a result.Template:Sfn Returning to Berlin unsuccessful, the delegation formed a British League "to promote British Sentiments in the community".Template:Sfn On 14Template:NbspApril, the league passed their own resolution imploring the city council to protest their treatment at Ontario's Legislative Assembly. The council passed the resolution, including in it an amendment that allowed them to hold a referendum over the issue. During a 24Template:NbspApril meeting, the council voted to hold a referendum on 19Template:NbspMay.Template:Sfn

Most Berliners expressed little interest in the campaign but those who did found it intense.<ref>Template:Harvnb: Most expressed little interest; Template:Harvnb: those who did found it intense.</ref> Archivist Barbara Wilson states: "Many Berliners, including Mayor J. E. Hett, saw no real purpose in changing Berlin's name, but to oppose the change-the-name movement actively in FebruaryTemplate:Nbsp[1916] would have led to more charges of disloyalty and pro-Germanism."Template:Sfn The Berlin Telegraph supported the name change while the Berlin News Record opposed. Both papers ran pieces and advertisements arguing their positions.Template:Sfn Tensions continued to rise, culminating on 5Template:NbspMay when 30 soldiers entered and ransacked the Acadian Club in Waterloo.Template:Sfn Canada's Minister of Justice, Charles Doherty, refused to reimburse the club for the damages, explaining that doing so would engender further racial disharmony.Template:Sfn William Breithaupt, head of Berlin's library board and the president of the Waterloo Historical Society, was outspoken in his opposition to the name change.Template:Sfn Throughout the campaign he received threatening letters and found the phone lines to his house cut.Template:Sfn

Voting and results

A large crowd of people, many of whom are holding umbrellas, are gathered at the train station to send off local recruits. Several factories can be seen behind the trains carrying the soldiers.
Three days after the referendum, residents see members of the 118th Battalion off at the Berlin station, 22Template:NbspMay 1916. The soldiers' absence reduced tensions in the city.

May 1916 referendum

On 19Template:NbspMay 1916, the referendum was held in Berlin asking voters: "Are you in favour of changing the name of this city?"Template:Sfn Historian Adam Crerar writes that much of the voting was characterized by intimidation. Soldiers of the 118th kept potential name change opponents away from the polls,Template:Sfn while name change proponents challenged unnaturalized citizens.Template:Sfn Many of those disenfranchised had voted in previous elections and had sent sons to fight for Canada in the war.Template:Sfn

Of 3,057 votes cast, "yes" won by 81 votes.Template:Sfn English & McLaughlin write that women and soldiers were generally "yes" voters, while the working class and residents of the especially German North Ward generally voted "no".Template:SfnTemplate:Refn The result of the vote prompted supporters to celebrate in the streets. A report in the Berlin News Record recounted fireworks being set off into the air and the sidewalks, ultimately injuring many celebrants.Template:Sfn Alderman J. A. Hallman sent a telegram to King George V informing him, "The loyal citizens of Berlin Canada rejoice to inform Your Majesty that they have this day cast off forever the name of the Prussian capital."Template:Sfn The Duke of Connaught informed Hallman on 23Template:NbspMay that the King had received his telegram.Template:Sfn A regimental band and crowd walked through Berlin and gathered in front of August Lang's home, a major opponent of the name change. Lang confronted the crowd and an altercation ensued. Colonel Lochead of the 118th Battalion found no fault on the part of his soldiers.Template:Sfn On 22Template:NbspMay, a week after the initial referendum, the 707 soldiers in the 118th Battalion left for London, Ontario, to continue training, alleviating much on the tension in the community.Template:Sfn

June 1916 name selection

A civic committee of 99 members was assembled to produce name recommendations. The committee narrowed thousands of suggestions to a shortlist of Huronto, Bercana, Dunard, Hydro City, Renoma and Agnoleo.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn A report in the Berlin News Record wrote that the names became "the joke of the country".Template:Sfn On 1Template:NbspJune, the Berlin City Council thanked the committee and decided to assemble its own list, offering cash prizes for winning suggestions.Template:Sfn On 5Template:NbspJune, Britain's Secretary of State for War, Horatio Herbert Kitchener, drowned aboard HMS Hampshire after it struck a mine while en route to Russia.<ref>Template:Harvnb: 5Template:NbspJune; Template:Harvnb: HMS Hampshire struck a mine en route to Russia.</ref> News of his drowning was widely reported the following day.Template:Sfn The Berlin News Record published a letter in its 7Template:NbspJune edition from local resident Elsie Master, who suggested "Kitchener" as a better alternative to "Berlin", writing it would evoke "splendid patriotism, tremendous energy, great attainments, and a sense of unswerving honour and rectitude".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The city council added Kitchener to their revised shortlist of names, the name being particularly popular among local businessmen, though some felt it to be in poor taste.Template:Sfn An editorial in Stratford, Ontario's Herald complained: "No name of a martyr of this war should be allowed to be appropriated where the motive is largely commercial."Template:Sfn

A ballot with six options: Brock, Kitchener, Corona, Adanac, Keowana and Benton.
A ballot for selecting the new city name, JuneTemplate:Nbsp1916

The final choices for the vote were narrowed to Brock, Kitchener, Corona, Adanac, Keowana and Benton.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn Some residents suggested that Berlin be renamed Waterloo and the cities merge.Template:Sfn A resolution pushing for this failed in Berlin's City Council on 20Template:NbspJune.Template:Sfn From 24 to 28Template:NbspJune 1916,Template:Refn between 9:00 am and 9:00 pm each day, a second vote was held to determine a new city name.Template:Sfn Turnout was low, with only 892 votes cast out of a possible 4,897.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn Of those, 163 spoiled their ballots, many crossing out all the options and writing in either Berlin or Waterloo.Template:Sfn Kitchener won with 346 votes, besting Brock by eleven votes.Template:Sfn

Choice Votes %
Kitchener 346 38.79
Brock 335 37.56
Adanac 23 2.58
Benton 15 1.68
Corona 7 0.78
Keowana 3 0.34
Invalid/blank votes 163 18.27
Total 892 100
Registered voters/turnout 4,897 18.22
Source:<ref>Template:Harvnb: "...Template:Nbsp163 were spoiled. Kitchener received 346 votes, Brock 335, Adanac 23, Benton 15, Corona 7 and Keowana 3."</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb: "The total vote was 892 of a possible 4,897 on the voter's list."</ref>Template:R

Reaction and aftermath

Immediate

Photographic portrait of David Gross
In an effort to defuse tensions, Kitchener mayor David Gross pledged in his JanuaryTemplate:Nbsp1917 inaugural address that he would not change Kitchener's name back.

Wilson writes that the reaction to the June vote result was "dead silence".Template:Sfn Regarding the low voter turnout, the Berlin News Record commented: "The outstanding feature was the absolute indifference displayed by the ratepayers."Template:Sfn On 4Template:NbspJuly 1916, the Berlin City Council approved the vote, setting 1Template:NbspSeptember 1916 as when the city would officially become Kitchener.Template:Sfn On 11Template:NbspJuly, the city council endorsed a petition by the newly formed Citizens' League, garnering 2,068 signatures opposing the name change.<ref>Template:Harvnb: 11Template:NbspJuly 1916; Template:Harvnb: Citizens' League, 2068 signatures.</ref> A delegation took the petition on to Ontario's Legislative Assembly.Template:Sfn The provincial government refused to stop the change seeing the vote as having been entirely orderly.Template:Sfn On 23Template:NbspAugust, the Ontario government passed an order recognizing the change as coming into effect on 1Template:NbspSeptember.Template:Sfn

On 1Template:NbspSeptember 1916, Berlin officially became Kitchener. English & McLaughlin write that Berlin's name change failed to quell outside suspicions about the loyalty of the German population.Template:Sfn Those who opposed the name change were harassed for their defiance.Template:Sfn Letter writers continued to address their mail to Berlin, forcing the Post Office to issue memoranda, while municipalities in Ontario petitioned the government to force those who refused to reference the city as Kitchener.<ref name="LAC">Template:Cite web</ref> In the lead-up to Kitchener's 1Template:NbspJanuary 1917 municipal election, members of the British League sought to expel "aliens" off the voters' list.Template:Sfn Every candidate elected to the city council had previously been against the name change.Template:Sfn When the results were announced, the British League, citizens and soldiers of the 118th Battalion gathered outside the Berlin News Record office, as well as mayor-elect David Gross's home and button factory. Soldiers smashed windows and destroyed the interiors of both buildings.Template:Sfn In an effort to defuse tensions, Gross pledged in his inaugural address that he would not try to change Kitchener's name back to Berlin.Template:Sfn

The last major attempt to change the name of Kitchener back to Berlin came during a 2Template:NbspDecember 1919 city council meeting. A finance committee report recommended another vote be held regarding the city's name. A crowd of 500, mostly members of the Great War Veterans' Association, made their way into the council room to show their opposition to the resolution. The council voted the resolution down but protestors assaulted two aldermen who abstained from the vote, forcing them to kiss the Union Jack and throwing one in the Victoria Park lake.Template:Sfn

1917 federal election

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Photographic portrait of William Daum Euler
The election of anti-conscription candidate William Daum Euler in Waterloo North reinforced outside perceptions that Kitchener and Waterloo remained loyal to Germany.

On 24Template:NbspNovember 1917, Prime Minister Robert Borden visited Kitchener to generate support for his Military Service Act and to campaign for his Unionist Party in the upcoming federal election.<ref>Template:Harvnb: 24Template:NbspNovember 1917; Template:Harvnb: generate support for Military Service Act and campaign.</ref> Two months earlier, his government passed the Wartime Elections Act which, among other things, disenfranchised voters expected to be opposed to conscription.<ref name="English">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The disenfranchisement included Germans who received their citizenship after 31 March 1902.Template:Sfn At the November event, a group of disgruntled citizens heckled Borden,Template:Sfn an incident which received national press coverage.Template:Sfn Local manufacturers and businessmen subsequently urged Kitchener City Council to apologize to the prime minister to prevent further lost business, but the city council refused to apologize by a vote of seven to five.Template:Sfn Newspapers in other Ontario cities – including Kingston, Guelph and Brantford – pointed to the refusal as evidence that, though Kitchener had changed its name, the residents remained loyal to Germany over Canada.Template:Sfn In his memoirs, Borden reflected that, for the rest of Canada, "the Kitchener incident was much more effective than any speech I could have delivered."<ref>Template:Harvnb, quoted in Template:Harvnb.</ref> Following the refusal, the Board of Trade and the Kitchener Manufacturers' Association protested the action by organizing a factory shutdown scheduled for 3Template:NbspDecember.Template:Sfn On the day of the protest, city council voted to apologize to stop a prolonged shutdown.Template:Sfn

During the election campaign, newspapers across Ontario generally sided with the Union government and their pro-conscription stance.Template:Sfn Kitchener and Waterloo were similar, where in the final three and a half weeks of the election campaign the Berlin News Record and the Berlin Telegraph did not publish or report on any campaign material from the Liberals, forcing Liberal challenger William Daum Euler to print his own paper, the Voice of the People.<ref>Template:Harvnb: newspapers did not publish Liberal campaign material; Template:Harvnb, quoted in Template:Harvnb: Euler's campaign printed the Voice of the People.</ref> Union campaign posters argued, "Who would the Kaiser vote for?"Template:Sfn In the vote, the incumbent Unionist Weichel lost his Waterloo North seat to Euler, a major opponent of conscription.<ref>Template:Harvnb, quoted in Template:Harvnb.</ref> Carried by the German vote, Euler won by a twenty-point margin, the largest majority of any of Ontario's Liberals. Illustrating the divide, he took 63.1 per cent of the civilian vote but only 4.6 per cent of the soldier vote.Template:Sfn The defeated Weichel lamented, "you cannot beat the Kaiser in North Waterloo."<ref>Template:Harvnb, quoted in Template:Harvnb.</ref> German animus for the Union Government and the Conservative Party persisted for generations,Template:Sfn while Euler's win reinforced outside perceptions that the residents of Kitchener and Waterloo remained loyal to Germany despite the name change.Template:Sfn Template:Clear

Legacy

The Rittinger & Motz printing firm building.
Ontario's last German-language newspaper, the Berliner Journal (printing office pictured, Template:Circa), closed in 1918 because the federal government forbade German-language publications.

In the years during and immediately following the First World War, numerous towns in Canada, the US and Australia changed the names of places associated with Germany,Template:Sfn though the levels of public unrest displayed during the Berlin-Kitchener name change distinguishes it from other contemporary name change examples.Template:Sfn The historian David Blackbourn describes the First World War as a caesura for people of German descent in the Anglo-Saxon world, marking a general decline in German culture:Template:Sfn "When the heavily German city of Berlin, Ontario, became Kitchener, and Berlin, Iowa, became Lincoln, these were instances of something repeated thousands of times across the German-speaking parts of the English speaking world. Little Germanys retreated sharply."Template:Sfn In the final months of the war, the Canadian Government passed an Order in Council requiring all Canadian newspapers in "languages of the enemy" to be published in either English or French. Ontario's last German-language newspaper, the Berliner Journal, ran its last issue in DecemberTemplate:Nbsp1918.<ref>Template:Harvnb: first English-only issue on 9Template:NbspOctober 1918, an issue ran as late as 25Template:NbspDecember 1918; Template:Harvnb: The Journal "ceased publication" ten years after 1908, i.e. 1918.</ref> The government repealed the order in JanuaryTemplate:Nbsp1920, but it was not until 1967 that another German-language newspaper appeared in Kitchener.Template:Sfn

Anti-German sentiments persisted in the immediate aftermath of the war.Template:Sfn Many German-Canadians anglicized their names – changing Braun to Brown and Schmidt to Smith, for example – and instead referred to their heritage as Dutch or Austrian.<ref>Template:Harvnb: anglicization of names and examples; Template:Harvnb: Dutch and Austrian.</ref> A 1919 Order in Council forbade German immigrants to enter Canada, a restriction held in place until 1923.Template:Sfn In the decades that followed, the German population of Kitchener decreased continuously.Template:Sfn The 1911 census listed 76 per cent of people in the community as being of German origin,Template:Sfn dropping to 55.6 and 53 per cent in 1921 and 1931 censuses, respectively.Template:Sfn Though the city had attracted large numbers of German immigrants in the previous century, when the restrictions on immigration were lifted in 1923 most newcomers instead settled in western Canada where resource industries were plentiful and land was inexpensive.<ref>Template:Harvnb: plentiful resource industries; Template:Harvnb: large numbers of German immigrants in previous century, inexpensive land in western Canada.</ref>

In the early 1930s, Kitchener and Waterloo largely rejected local fascist movements inspired by Germany's rising Nazi Party.Template:Sfn When Canada and Britain again found themselves at war against Germany during the Second World War, community leaders were sensitive to charges of disloyalty and acted quickly to assuage outside doubts; the Concordia Club and other German social clubs shut down in AugustTemplate:Nbsp1939.Template:Sfn Kitchener experienced little of the anti-German sentiment seen during the First World War.Template:Sfn During the war, seven Kitchener residents were interned as enemy aliens. This was a lower number than that of surrounding communities, a fact the Daily Record reported proudly.Template:Sfn Historian William Campbell credits the lack of anti-German sentiment to a broadening of the Canadian identity following the First World War, extending beyond the dominant English and French cultures.Template:Sfn English & McLaughlin point to the automobile and new forms of mass media – such as movies, the radio and magazines – as expanding culture in Kitchener and bringing it more in alignment with Canada and North America as a whole.Template:Sfn Most scholars agree that in the decades following the war Germans in Canada were assimilated.<ref>Template:Harvnb, quoted in Template:Harvnb.</ref>

Through the second half of the 20th century, Greeks, Portuguese, Indian, West Indian and Chinese ethnic groups dominated immigration to the community, 25 per cent of residents considering themselves of German origin in the 2001 census.<ref>Template:Harvnb: most immigration from other ethnic groups; Template:Harvnb: 25 percent German in 2001 census.</ref> After English, German was the second-most spoken language in Waterloo Region until 2016, when it was surpassed by Mandarin.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the aftermath of the First World War, the community shifted to emphasizing the Pennsylvania Dutch and Mennonite communities that first settled in the area, illustrated in Mabel Dunham's 1924 work of historical fiction, The Trail of the Conestoga, and in the 1926 dedication of the Waterloo Pioneer Memorial Tower.Template:Sfn Overt celebrations of the city's European German tradition returned in the late 1960s and early 1970s;Template:Sfn the Kitchener–Waterloo Oktoberfest attracts hundreds of thousands of participants annually, making it the largest Oktoberfest celebrated in North America,Template:Sfn though English & McLaughlin comment the event is more a celebration of drinking than of German culture.Template:Sfn In 1992, author William Chadwick examined the name change in a work of popular history, published as The Battle for Berlin, Ontario: An Historical Drama. He produced a play from the book, The Berlin Show, staged for Waterloo audiences in the summer of 1994.Template:Sfn In the 21st century, Horatio Herbert Kitchener's role in establishing concentration camps during the Second Boer War has made his legacy unsavoury to some Kitchener residents. In 2020, a 380-signature petition calling for another name change prompted the Kitchener City Council to respond: "While we in no way condone, diminish or forget his actionsTemplate:Nbsp... Kitchener has become so much more than its historic connection to a British field marshal."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

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