It has been discussed for a long time, but now it has been decided: because of the SS past of the former mayor and namesake, the stadium of the second division football team Kapfenberg will now have a new name. However, other streets in the city of Upper Styria are allowed to keep their names.
In recent months, a committee of historians has been investigating the naming of the Kapfenberg Stadium after former mayor Franz Fekete. The 153-page final report (which broadly discussed Kapfenberg’s National Socialist past) is now available. The result was a clear recommendation for action to rename the stadium.
Member of the SS-Totenkopf-Standarte
Fekete was mayor of the city of Upper Styria from 1963 to 1987. According to the committee report, he applied for the SS on April 1, 1938 and was admitted shortly afterwards to the 3rd SS-Totenkopf-Standarte Thuringia, which, among other things, was stationed as a guard in the Buchenwald concentration camp. In 2001 the stadium was named after Fekete.
A street is also being renamed
For another five streets named after active NSDAP members (including Ottokar Kernstock and Hans Kloepfer), the city, on the recommendation of historians, decided to conduct a survey among the local population – with the result that these streets will not be renamed. The only exception is the Karl-Heinrich-Waggerl-Weg.
Source: Krone
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