To some, new Hindenburg sign in park isn’t Willkommen

A new welcome sign at a La Crescenta-area park has some community residents up in arms over the Nazi-era associations they allege it recalls.

Beginning last month, visitors to Crescenta Valley Community Regional Park have been greeted with a large sign that reads, “Welcome to Hindenburg Park — The Historic German Section of Crescenta Valley Park.”

In some ways, it makes historical sense: Hindenburg Park was the name of a section of Crescenta Valley Park once privately owned by the German-American League, dating to the 1930s. The group named the park after World War I hero and former German President Paul von Hindenburg (who also happens to be the namesake for the famous airship that caught fire in 1937). German-American cultural events, including dances, picnics and even an Oktoberfest, took place there.

But more troubling to some is that the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi group, staged rallies at Hindenburg Park in the 1930s and ’40s, according to the Cal State Northridge Oviatt Library archive, “In Our Own Backyard: Resisting Nazi Propaganda in Southern California, 1933-1945.”

And while Hindenburg defeated Adolf Hitler in his bid for the presidency, he was the one who ultimately appointed Hitler as chancellor.

In 1957, the German-American League sold the land to Los Angeles County, which folded that section of the park into the larger Crescenta Valley Park. Kaye Michelson, acting public information officer of the L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation, said the larger park has not been renamed; the sign is only a tribute to its history.

“The intent was, and is, to honor the German-American heritage of the park,” Michelson said in a phone interview.

Nevertheless, Eagle Rock resident and L.A. Community College District board of trustees member Mona Field, who is Jewish, is among those leading an effort to have the sign removed or altered.

“Just look at Wikipedia if you have any doubts that the name Hindenburg is linked to the rise of Hitler,” Field told the Journal.

“I don’t go to the park. I go there very rarely,” Field added. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t have to go to the park to be offended. … The idea of a big sign where it gives the impression it’s called ‘Hindenburg Park’ … that’s not good. There’s the appearance the park has been renamed.” 

The park is in an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County, near areas such as Glendale and La Cañada-Flintridge. It falls within the county’s Fifth District, which is overseen by L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, whose Pasadena field office referred the Journal to the parks and recreation department. 

The sign is approximately 6 feet tall and stands at the entrance of the park, at Dunsmore and Honolulu avenues. The phrase, “Willkommen zum” (German for “welcome to”) precedes the words “Hindenburg Park.” 

While “County of Los Angeles Department of Parks & Recreation” appears at the bottom of the sign, the county did not pay for the sign, which cost $2,500, according to Michelson. The nonprofit Tricentennial Foundation worked with the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Historical Society of Crescenta Valley and the Crescenta Valley Town Council toward funding the sign, she said.

A plaque that predates the sign is on display inside the park. It describes the history of the park, explaining that it was “created in memorial of [Hindenburg’s] death in 1934” and that it was a “center for German culture to the whole western United States from its creation to its closing day.” It describes Hindenburg as a “famed German president” and does not say anything else about him. There is no mention that an American Nazi organization once held rallies there.

During a recent weekday, Renee Brandt, a longtime Glendale resident and retired teacher, was attempting to socialize her two dogs at an enclosed dog-park area adjacent to the sign. She told the Journal she did not know what to make of the sign. 

“I noticed it, and, truth be told, I thought it must be for a movie, a movie thing. It couldn’t be real,” she said, adding that the name, ‘Hindenburg’ did not connote the atrocities of Nazi Germany for her. 

 “If it could be misconstrued, that’s a problem,” she said.

Less concerned was Peggy Wilkerson, who spoke to the Journal as she was walking her dog, Cubby. “I don’t know exactly the history of Hindenburg. I wouldn’t not come here because it’s related to a Nazi party. That was so long ago.”

So far, Michelson said the parks and recreation department has fielded about six calls related to the sign. The department is in the process of determining what to do about it, she said.

“What we are really asking for is more time to review the chronology [of events that led to the sign’s installation] and to develop a fair and equitable process for a thorough evaluation. We are in that process right now. We will have more information about how we proceed from that point with new information that has been provided to us by the constituents, the people who have come forward,” she said.

Stephen Sass, president of the Jewish Historical Society of Southern California, told the Journal that the sign represents an accurate history of the park. However, it would behoove the organizations behind the sign to provide an opportunity for people to know the entire history of the park — warts and all, he added.

“Historically, it was called Hindenburg Park, and it was a place where German Americans gathered, but I think … it is an important part of the history to tell there was open support, there were pro-Nazi demonstrations there,” Sass said. “That’s a part of it.”