Schwerin sought to augment his Prussian Officer anti-Nazi credentials in West Germany's post-war political environment on the basis of his initial decision to withdraw from Aachen in the September 1944 fighting by styling himself as the "Saviour of Aachen" (although substantial fighting and destruction had occurred in the town in the subsequent Battle of Aachen after his arrest and removal from the scene). This narrative found some acceptance, with his being granted the honour by the town of having a street 'Graf Schwerin Strasse' (Count Schwerin's Street) named after him and being given civic awards at ceremonies held there in the 1950s and 1970s. The honour of the street name was withdrawn in 2008 after local political opposition in the town, upon the basis that while Schwerin was briefly Aachen's military commandant, two teenage boys had been summarily executed for looting. The name of the street was in consequence changed to the 'Kornelimunsterweg'.