Last summer, the German professional basketball player Moses Pölking took on an unlikely off-court opponent. Organizing an online petition, the athlete demanded that the name of a Berlin subway station be changed. Located in a leafy, well-to-do part of town, it is now known as Onkel Toms Hütte — or Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  

The 1852 novel, written by Harriett Beecher-Stowe, for which the station is named occupies a fraught place in the annals of American literature, recognized both for galvanizing public opinion against the brutality of slavery and for reinforcing reductive racial stereotypes with the servile depiction of its main character. 

Pölking, whose parents are German and Cameroonian, spoke of his discomfort passing the station. “It woke up a lot of bad emotions,” he told the broadcaster Deutsche Welle, arguing that it is way past time for it and a nearby street to be renamed.

So far, Pölking’s petition has not succeeded. The station’s name greets visitors on a large sign outside, emblazoned in white letters against a bright blue background.