Google apologizes for “Hitler” name on maps

AP Photo/Gottfried Gilbert courtesy of Alexandra Senfft

BERLIN—Google has apologized after a Berlin intersection accidentally regained its Nazi-era name, Adolf-Hitler-Platz, on the Google Maps service.

Google spokeswoman Lena Wagner said Friday the company quickly took down the name after the error was discovered. The intersection was relabeled with its proper name, Theodor-Heuss-Platz, after West Germany’s first post-World War II president.

Google says it’s not clear how the error occurred, but that “we apologize for this mistake.” The erroneous name was visible only for a few hours late Thursday.

Scores of streets and squares were named after Hitler during his 1933-1945 dictatorship.

The intersection in question, in western Berlin, sits on what the Nazis envisioned as the capital’s main east-west axis for a redesign of the city that was never completed.