Urban development, maintenance and conservation: planning in Germany – values in transition

Abstract

In the history of urban planning, the attitude toward the existing urban fabric, the built heritage, has been subject to a number of changes both in theory and practice. This wide‐ranging article reviews the changing attitudes to the built heritage within Germany’s cities since the nineteenth century. Drawing on contemporary literature and many specific examples of practice, it charts perspectives and priorities which have ranged between neglect and attention, conversion and imitation. Present perspectives in German planning are marked by a growing awareness of future urban shrinkage which is likely to affect urban development policy for sustainability: from expansion to maintenance and regeneration of existing structure and substance.

Notes

1. Leonardo Benevolo, Die sozialen Ursprünge des modernen Städtebaues. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1971, p. 11. Heinrich v. Treitschke, Deutsche Geschichte im 19. Jahrhundert. 8 Auflage. Leipzig: Hirzel, 1919, p. 682.

2. Joseph Stübben, Der Städtebau. Darmstadt: Bergsträsser, 1890, p. 240.

3. Camillo Sitte, Der Städte‐Bau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen. Wien: Carl Graeser, 1889, p. 16. For a thorough discussion of the book and its effects, including the misinterpretation caused by a biased translation into French, see George R. Collins and Christiane Crasemann Collins, Camillo Sitte and the Birth of Modern City Planning. New York: Random House, 1965.

4. Theodor Fischer, 6 Vorträge über Stadtbaukunst. München and Berlin: R. Oldenbourg, 1920.

5. Joseph Stübben, Der Städtebau. 3. Aufl. Leipzig: Gebhardt’s Verlag, 1924. p. 706.

6. Cornelius Gurlitt, Besserung der Wohnverhältnisse in alten Städten, in Stadtverwaltung Düsseldorf (ed.) Verhandlungen des ersten Kongresses für Städtewesen. Düsseldorf: A. Bagel, 1913, pp. 9‐13.

7. Hans Christian Nussbaum, Hygiene des Städtebaues. Leipzig : Göschen, 1907, p. 101.

8. Raymond Unwin, Grundlagen des Städtebaues. Berlin: Otto Baumgärtel, 1910.

9. Werner Hegemann, Der Städtebau nach den Ergebnissen der Städtebau‐Ausstellungen in Berlin und Düsseldorf 1910–1912. Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth, 1913.

10. Patrick Abercrombie, Town Planning Review (1913) 207.

11. Otto Schilling, Innere Stadterweiterung. Berlin: Der Zirkel, 1921, p. VII.

12. Theodor Fischer, Altstadt und neue Zeit, in: Gegenwartsfragen künstlerischer Kultur. Augsburg: Filser, 1931, p. 20.

13. Fritz Schumacher, Stadt‐ und Landesplanung Bremen 1926–1930. Bremen: Hauschild, 1931, p. 229.

14. Lexikon der Baukunst. Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth, 1932, p. 438 and 1937, p. 13.

15. Karl Meitinger, Das neue München. München: Brinckmann, 1946, pp. 9 and 62.

16. Ulrich Conrads, Programme und Manifeste zur Architektur des 20. Jahrhunderts: Ein Nachkriegsaufruf – Grundsätzliche Forderungen. Berlin/Frankfurt/Wien: Ullstein, 1964, p. 141. (Originally: Baukunst und Werkform 1 (1947), p. 29.)

17. Patrick Abercrombie, Town and Country Planning. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2^nd edn), 1943, p. 27.

18. Norbert Huse, Denkmalschutz, in Th.Sieverts (ed.) Zukunftsaufgaben der Stadtplanung. Düsseldorf: Werner, 1990, p. 87.

19. Friedrich Krauss, Der Anteil des historischen Bestandes am Charakter einer Stadt. München: Weinmayer, 1948.

20. Gottfried Semper, cited by Joseph Stübben, Der Bau der Städte in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Berlin: Ernst & Sohn, 1895.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gerd Albers

* Gerd Albers was born in Hamburg in 1919 and served in the German navy during World War II. After the war he trained as an architect at Hannover Techical University and a city planner at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He practised as a town planner in the cities of Ulm, Trier and Darmstadt, ending as Director of all technical services. From 1962 to 1988 he occupied the Chair of Town and Regional Planning at Munich Technical University. He was a founder member of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP) and was its President 1975–8. He remains active in several German professional societies and, from 1985 to 1991, was President of the Deutsche Akademie für Städtebau und Landesplanung. He is the author of five books and approximately 160 articles on various aspects of planning and has received several awards and decorations for his work in the field of planning.