Planned city Stalinstadt: a manifesto of the early German Democratic Republic

Abstract

This article deals with the founding of an industrial town in the German Democratic Republic (GDR)near Frankfurt an der Oder around 1950. Stalinstadt, later renamed Eisenhüttenstadt, was the first German new town after World War II. It was built claiming to be the ‘first socialist city on German soil’. The founding of Stalinstadt can be seen as a paradigm of the early history of the GDR, particularly from two viewpoints. First, in respect of its urban development and aesthetic concept: Stalinstadt was planned as the model accomplishment of the GDR's Sixteen Principles of Urban Development of 1950. Secondly, with regard to industrial and regional policies: with the foundation of the new state, industry in the GDR was cut off from the traditional West German centres of heavy industry. The GDR decided to build up its own iron industry at a well‐developed location in the poorly industrialized area near the border with Poland, favouring the politically desired regional adjustment and an eastward‐orientated economic policy. Iron ore and coke were imported from Poland and the USSR. In this context the political dimension of this foundation is also present, with the chronological connection to the creation of the border with Poland (in July 1950). The essay describes the planning prerequisites, outlines two competing planning concepts for the new city, reports on the enhancement of the planning into the ‘model city’ of the early GDR and on the related disputes. It closes by presenting the further development of the city that, in the course of Khrushchev's changes toward strict economies of the building sector, soon loses its model character.