Swiss town sticks with peak’s name despite racist ties

A Swiss town on Wednesday refused to rename the Agassizhorn mountain despite its namesake’s espousal of racist views, the ATS news agency reported.

The 19th century Swiss geologist Louis Agassiz was known for research into fish, fossils and glaciers, but he has also been criticised in recent years for defending racist ideas.

After emigrating to the United States in 1846, Agassiz argued for racial segregation and hierarchies, and fiercely attacked Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

But mayor of the town of Grindelwald, Beat Bucher, disagreed with those who wanted to change the peak’s name, saying: “We cannot erase the stains of history.”

In a reference to the central Swiss summit, Bucher added: “It is better to accept it with its positive and negative aspects.”

The mountain peak, at just under 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) is shared by two other municipalities, Guttannen and Fieschertal, which had already rejected a bid to rename it.

A fresh effort was made after the killing in late May of George Floyd, an African American asphyxiated by a white police officer, generated a global wave of revulsion against racist symbols.