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Change Kitchener's name back to Berlin?
#46
(03-06-2015, 12:53 PM)MidTowner Wrote: Wow! Thanks for that!

By the way, everyone, KPL has several copies: http://encore.kpl.org/iii/encore_kpl/rec...&suite=kpl

It's also available from Amazon.com.  I borrowed the copy I read from the Plattsville Library (Oxford County Library system), since I live just outside the Region.  What I really liked about the book is that the author admits he has a bias.  And if you get a chance to read the book you'll understand why.  A similar vote today would not stand.  Hell, a vote like that wouldn't be allowed to stand in any democracy.  But we were at war and things that normally wouldn't happen happened.

Read the book and you'll never think of Kitchener the same way again.  I know I don't.  I can't.  Our history is anything but boring. 
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#47
Two years ago, Backyard Theatre mounted a play at the Conrad Centre entitled "Nowhere, Ontario" set against the background of the events of 1916.
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#48
(03-06-2015, 12:53 PM)MidTowner Wrote: Wow! Thanks for that!

By the way, everyone, KPL has several copies: http://encore.kpl.org/iii/encore_kpl/rec...&suite=kpl

And thanks for this.  I've got a hold on it now...
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#49
(03-06-2015, 12:53 PM)MidTowner Wrote: By the way, everyone, KPL has several copies: 

There's also a free preview at amazon.ca that includes some photos 
http://www.amazon.ca/The-Battle-Berlin-O...0889202265
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#50
We usually celebrate birthdays.  It's what we do. 

In several weeks, on March 6, Toronto will celebrate it's 182nd birthday.  Some citizens have plans to celebrate -- even a day early. 

Two years ago, when Toronto turned 180, there were lots of celebrations.

Birthdays are a big deal.  Heart

On September 1, 2016, Kitchener becomes 100 years old.

I've done a search online and, unless I missed something, I couldn't find any plans by the City to celebrate its 100 birthday.  Perhaps the City will eventually come up with something to celebrate its centennial

But until that happens -- or in nothing happens -- I will have to assume there is some (collective?) guilt over the name change in 1916. 
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#51
Maybe you’re right to an extent about collective guilt. The City as a City had its centennial four years ago- maybe we should have celebrated then. Celebrating the centennial of a name-change doesn’t seem as exciting as centennial of cityhood, somehow.
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#52
(02-22-2016, 09:03 AM)MidTowner Wrote: Maybe you’re right to an extent about collective guilt. The City as a City had its centennial four years ago- maybe we should have celebrated then. Celebrating the centennial of a name-change doesn’t seem as exciting as centennial of cityhood, somehow.

There were numerous centennial commemorations in 2012.
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#53
Last year we celebrated the 70th anniversary of VE Day.  Surely we can celebrate the 100 anniversary of the defeat of the German 'menace' locally.  

(02-22-2016, 10:40 AM)KevinL Wrote: There were numerous centennial commemorations in 2012.

Kitchener wasn't around in 1912.
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#54
Kitchener was around in 1912, it just wasn't called Kitchener yet. I personally remember all of one mention of the centennial four years ago, but I suppose that just means I wasn't paying attention.
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#55
(02-22-2016, 12:20 PM)MidTowner Wrote: Kitchener was around in 1912, it just wasn't called Kitchener yet. I personally remember all of one mention of the centennial four years ago, but I suppose that just means I wasn't paying attention.

[img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e...io.svg.png[/img]

Since we have 1916 on our crest, isn't celebrating in 2012 just plain confusing for folks?

Coke
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#56
It is truly bizarre to me to mark 2016...the City Formerly Known as Berlin became a city in 1912, not 1916. Maybe jgsz is right that we should be having a big centennial celebration this year, then.
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#57
... and change the name back to Berlin!
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#58
(11-25-2014, 06:09 PM)TMKM94 Wrote: I like the idea of a name change, but I think the time for a name change is long gone, we have been called Kitchener for 100 years and we are fairly well known through out the world. If Kitchener was to be renamed though I think Zehrville, Zehrcity or Schneiderlin would sound cool.

It would be much better to wait for Waterloo to come to its senses and name the newly amalgamated city "Waterloo".   Perhaps in time for the bicentennial in 2116.....
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#59
2010 was the first local election I voted in (I hadn’t moved to the Region in 2006), and I was flabbergasted by that result given my lack of understanding of some of the Region’s dynamics. It was shocking that twice as many Waterlooers would prefer this situation to the logical one.

I still don’t really understand it, but it seems like we won’t get another referendum for a fair few cycles, given the result six years ago. Although it’s worth noting that a majority of voters in Kitchener-Waterloo actually supported the merger (or, anyway, discussing it).

I’m a little surprised that the provincial government has never made it happen. They form so many illogical municipalities (the new City of Hamilton; the forced union of Fergus and Elora as Centre-Wellington; the temporary combination of the historic counties of Norfolk and Haldimand) that it would seem a no-brainer to join two cities with absolutely no physical separation and in which a majority of residents would favour the merger…
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#60
Photo 
(03-02-2016, 06:46 PM)MidTowner Wrote: It is truly bizarre to me to mark 2016...the City Formerly Known as Berlin became a city in 1912, not 1916. Maybe jgsz is right that we should be having a big centennial celebration this year, then.

Here's the thing.  Yes, the city formerly known as Berlin became a city in 1912.  But it was in 1916 that (a minority of) citizens voted to change the name of the city.  

When a town becomes a city is a rather dry, bureaucratic decision.   Some faceless bureaucrat or bureaucrats decided that Berlin (and other towns) becomes a city when the population reaches x number of people.   It's arbitrary and without sentiment.  Not much to celebrate or commemorate, especially when you juxtapose that to a decision made by the people.   And in 1916 the people, as it were, spoke.  

So here we are a hundred years later and the name change seems to be a subject that no politician wants to touch -- yet.  

Any why?  Probably, because by today's standards a grievous error was committed against the citizens of a city who, through no fault of their own, who were not disloyal, who committed no crime and who were not violent or rebellious, and who were not given the option to retain the chosen name of their city, were intimidated, sometimes by violent acts, to stay at home and to shut up.  Today we would say, WTF?

This issue troubles me because injustice troubles me.  But the injustice could be remedied -- if there is the political will.   No, Kitchener's name doesn't have to be changed back to Berlin.  That would be too cumbersome and unnecessary, especially if Kitchener and Waterloo merge.  But Mayor Vrbanovic, who is of neither German or English heritage, could offer an apology.  And perhaps the former city of Berlin could be celebrated by erecting historical place signs at major roads leading into the place once called Berlin.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=65]
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