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The city of Berlin, Ontario, Canada, changed its name to Kitchener by referendum in May and June 1916. 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.[note 1] 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 August 1914, 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 19 May 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 1 September 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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- McKegney 1991, pp. 177–178: "The first period of the name change controversy ended with the election, May 19, 1916, in which 3,057 votes were cast. The result of the vote ... was almost equally divided, 1569–1488, an 81 vote majority for a change in Berlin's name. ... 4897 [people were] on the voter's list."
- Wilson 1977a, p. lxxix: "'Are you in favour of changing the name of this city?'"
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