Wherever German-speaking immigrants settled in Alberta in the early part of
the 20th century, they established towns and villages with names that reminded
them of their homeland.
But, when the Great War against Germany broke out in 1914, public sentiment
towards German immigrants changed from respect to resentment.
And, as historian Merrily Aubrey explains, a movement arose in many towns to
change their names to something more politically correct.
The Bingen post office, which was located 75 kilometres southwest of
Medicine Hat, opened in 1913, and it was named after a German town on the
Rhine River, southeast of Bonn. And, in 1916, during the war, the post
office was renamed Nemiskam, probably through a petition of the local
residents.
Alderson is another community which received a name change because of the
war. It also was home to some of the earliest German settlers near Medicine Hat.
The area was first known as Langevin, when a post of that name was
established in 1904. And I believe Langevin was a Member of Parliament in
Ottawa.
The Langevin post office closed three years later, in 1907, only to open
again as Carlstadt, in 1909. In 1915, the name was changed to something more
patriotic, and that is when Alderson was chosen.
Alderson commemorated Lieutenant-General Sir Edwin Alfred Harvey
Alderson, commander of the first Canadian division in Europe.
Yet another Alberta town to erase its German namesake was that of Dusseldorf.
Dusseldorf was named after a German city. It was a post office; it opened
1910, and it was 15 km northeast of Barrhead.
The first two postmasters were Messers Svarg and Munsterman, so obviously
there was a German connection there.
The post office ran under that name until January 1919, and its new name
was Freedom.
But not all communities caved in to the anti-German sentiment that pervaded
Alberta during World War I. Those included Bismarck and Hussar.
On the Heritage Trail,
I’m Cheryl Croucher.
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