German version: Berlin - eine zweimalige Stadt

A city twice unique
The urban planning context in Berlin

Hanns-Uve Schwedler

Over the last decade Berlin has come to be known as "Europe’s largest construction site," and as the "construction site of German reunification." There is no denying that since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 the city has experienced dramatic economic, political, and social changes, as well as a radical upheaval in urban planning and design for which there are few parallels. The urban development and restructuring processes in particular have demanded a great deal from Berlin’s citizens, as construction projects are not just visible for all but are physically experienced and encountered on a daily basis. The rebuilding of urban spaces, daily adjustments to traffic circulation patterns, and the great volume of demolition and new construction all add up to influence what is known in German as a Heimat feeling, or a person’s identification with a particular place. Thus it comes as no surprise in Berlin that all of the planning and development of the last decade has led - and continues to lead - to intensive and very controversial debates. This has to do with nothing less than the bringing together of two cities of millions, who were shaped by their extremely different urban development paradigms of the previous 50 years. This also has to do with the conversion of the city into Germany’s capital, a process that is not yet completed with the official move of the government and parliament from Bonn to Berlin in 1999. And this has to do with the economic repositioning of Berlin, not only regionally but globally speaking. This in itself is a considerable change for Berlin as such economic positioning played only a minor role in each of the two ‘Front Cities’ while they were each representing their respective world powers. A primary question here is if it is possible for residents of this reunified city to emotionally identify with the new ‘complete’ city without letting go of their attachments to their old neighbourhoods (what in Berlin is known as the Kiez), and accompanying local structures and institutions.

Berlin’s modern history is laden with powerful symbolic transitions, and the city is characterised more by fits of planning and upheaval than by of organic growth, which distinguishes Berlin from many other European cities. Berlin first took on its present size in 1920 through the integration of seven towns and 59 rural communities, after which the city rapidly developed into a world city in the ‘Golden Twenties.’ The ‘Great Berlin’ urban design competition was carried out as early as 1910, in order to create, among other things, a plan for the restructuring of the downtown area. This plan was intended to help "force a service-orientation of the downtown and an artistic or architectural emphasis to this area’s central national standing with respect to research and culture as well as administration and politics." Berlin’s two centres - one being its old downtown and the other the Kurfürstendamm which had been an expanding district since the 1890s - were to be connected through urban design measures. This plan was not to be realised, but history does have a way of repeating itself. The objectives of this historical plan, even if they are differently articulated today, are to be found again in the current Planwerk Innenstadt (Work Plan for the Inner City; cp. below and Ch. 4).

As the National Socialists seized power, a foundation was laid for the city’s destruction: at first through Albert Speer’s plan for the super-centre of Germania, and then through the bombing by the Allied Forces. Much of Berlin was reduced to fields of rubble by the end of the war, especially the downtown area, and in these fields the two new states with their differing political systems went about setting up their respective metropolises. The GDR created a home for its national government in the eastern half of Berlin, while the FRG maintained its capital in the western half - even if this merely meant naming Berlin as the capital city in the FRG constitution. The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 destroyed whatever illusions were left concerning the existence of a single city.

While it would be a great simplification to maintain that West Berlin’s development could be explained by the Athens Charter and East Berlin’s development by the Moscow Charter, we do find a corresponding polycentric spatial structure in the West and a monocentric structure in the East of Berlin. The Athens Charter further relates to the ideas expressed below considering ‘Berlin as a European City’ - ideas that were decisive in discussions over the future of Berlin after 1990.

The following will concentrate on the urban development of the historical city centre (meaning that of downtown East Berlin) as it is really this area and its physical structures that were called into question after Berlin’s reunification, and it is this area that has been the focus of the most heated debates.

Through a restructuring of the Alexanderplatz and the erection there of a 365 metres high TV Tower, along with the development of the adjacent Marx-Engels-Forum and ‘Palace of the Republic’ with its parade grounds, the GDR fashioned a political and monumental centre for East Berlin very much in the spirit of the Moscow Charter. The Charter determined that: "Political demonstrations, military parades and people’s holiday festivals should take place on such representative public squares in the city centre. The most important, monumental structures should be constructed in the city centre." The most monumental of East Berlin’s projects is the ‘Palace of the Republic,’ built between 1973 and 1976, which today is a source of great controversy. The large building was home to the GDR People’s Congress and also a significant cultural and leisure centre for city residents and tourists. The Palace has emerged as an important symbol for many East Berliners, embodying what they would like to preserve of their local history. Meanwhile, many others - especially nostalgic West Berliners - would like to rebuild the Hohenzollern City Palace that was torn down in 1950 to make way for the Palace of the Republic. At this point the discussion seems to be finding a more objective grounding today.

The Leipziger Strasse that runs through the city centre also saw a demolition of streetscapes and buildings that remained after the war, and their replacement with large housing blocks in the spirit of socialist housing development. On the Fischerinsel (Fisher Island), the older structures were replaced with seven residential towers of between 18 and 21 storeys. These centrally-located high-rises have also provoked a great deal of discussion due to their height (cp. below) and design that many find unsuitable for Berlin (cp. Ch. 5).

The famous Friedrichstrasse - that was largely destroyed during the war - remained a construction site well into the 1980s. At that time a change of mind was experienced by many planners and politicians in the GDR who became interested in a reconstruction of the historical city. East Germany’s leader, Honecker, envisioned redeveloping Friedrichstrasse into the "most attractive commercial street in the capital city," but this plan was only partially realised by 1989. However, further development of this area after 1990 was able to build on what had been started, while using new resources.

Although some of the objectives and even end-results of urban development prior to 1990 are very similar to those after 1990 (e.g. preserving residential areas in the downtown area and developing Friedrichstrasse as a valuable commercial street), it is still clear that the reunification of Berlin brought two very different city halves together, bringing with them their contrasting histories of development:

• "The structures in the West were organised polycentrically, while in the East planning was monocentric with a considerable functional neglect of outlying city districts.
• The downtown area in the West around the Tiergarten was densely developed, while the East was characterised by large open areas in its central district between Alexanderplatz and Friedrichstadt.
• The Western centre around the Zoo district was characterised as having very little housing, while many tens of thousands lived around the East’s Alexanderplatz.
• Institutions with the character of a capital city (e.g. Federal buildings or embassies) had largely disappeared from West Berlin while East Berlin’s centre was representative of the socialist capital city."

The two part-cities did have at least one thing in common: numerous neglected open areas that had emerged along both sides of the dividing Berlin Wall. With the removal of the Wall came a shifting of the city’s entire spatial structure, and unattractive vacant lots, such as the empty fields in East Berlin, suddenly found themselves in central locations, and quickly developed as desired objects for investors and architects.

The restructuring of Berlin after its reunification has been concentrated and is most visible in a few areas and large projects (Fig. 2.1). These have dominated expert discussions and often public conversation as well:

Potsdamer and Leipziger Platz as the busiest traffic intersections in Europe in the 1920s once connected the historical downtown area with the new developments in the West that along Potsdamer Strasse and Kurfürstendamm had grown to be important centres of their own. Sitting directly adjacent to the Wall in 1989, Potsdamer and Leipziger Platz represented the largest vacant, buildable areas in Berlin’s inner city. Today, the new developments by DaimlerChrysler, Sony and other large investors found here are symbolic for the "New Berlin" and play an important role in the marketing of the city (cp. Ch. 11). However, in terms of their urban design these new projects are controversial.

Other large vacant and ‘under-used’ areas, for example around Rummelsburger Bucht (bay) and Adlershof, have been redeveloped in recent years. The abandonment of the majority of such areas has not been due to their poor spatial location, but rather to the rapid decline of industrial and commercial production in Berlin in the 1990s. Rummelsburger Bay is being developed into a mixed-use area and Adlershof into a centre for research, technology and media in which the natural sciences faculty of the Humboldt University is to be settled.

The Pariser Platz just east of the Brandenburger Tor (gate) is similar to Potsdamer Platz in that it is historically speaking one of Berlin’s most important public squares. This gate and square were the main entrance to the historical centre, but their meaning was lost as they found themselves in the GDR’s off-limits border zone. Pariser Platz is now regaining its status as banks, luxury hotels, cultural institutions and embassies are settling here once again. The Berlin approach of Critical Reconstruction (cp. below & Ch. 4) is finding support here in the interests of France, Great Britain and the USA, who are rebuilding their embassies around this historic square.

A new administrative and governmental district is being developed around the Spreebogen, where the River Spree makes a bend around the Reichstag. Heated discussions concerning relationships between architecture and political symbols were provoked here by the renovation of the Reichstag following the designs of the British architect, Norman Foster. The Reichstag was erected in 1884 in what was then the German Empire, and was home to the House of Representatives during the Weimar Republic who were only able to muster a small amount of resistance to the rise of the National Socialists. The burning of the Reichstag in 1933 was the opening event for a wave of political persecution. Could a building with such a historical burden be used as a home for the German Federal Parliament? And what would this mean for the architectural design? Foster won approval for his concepts only after a considerable number of revisions, some of which were fundamental. While it was originally planned to cover the entire building with a glass roof, this idea gave way to the solution of the ‘historical’ glass dome. North-west of the Reichstag there is a building complex going up known as the ‘Band des Bundes’ (Federal ribbon), which is a row of three structures including the Chancellor’s Offices and two other buildings that will span the River Spree with offices for federal politicians and parliamentarians.

The opening of the Friedrichstadtpassagen (department stores) in Berlin-Mitte along Friedrichstrasse was an important precondition for resurrection of this Eastern downtown area as a centre for high-class retailing and services. Close to Potsdamer Platz, the areas around Friedrichstrasse and Leipziger Strasse have generated the most activity on the part of private investors and developers. While these more recent investments have to a certain extent built upon developments that had already begun in GDR years (cp. above), other urban development projects in East Berlin are still on hold. Some of the main questions to be resolved concern future development of Alexanderplatz and Schlossplatz (the former Hohenzollern Palace) with its adjacent Palace of the Republic.

A series of other large construction and development projects as well as urban redevelopment initiatives are worth mentioning here. These include Lehrter Bahnhof (railway station) just to the north of Potsdamer Platz; the Diplomatic District to the south of the Tiergarten, Berlin’s large inner-city park; the new international airport being planned for Berlin-Brandenburg, and the renovation of large pre-fabricated social housing estates in which more than 700 000 people live.

However, the examples briefly described above are enough to outline the range of actors and interests that have played a role in urban planning in Berlin over the last decade:

• national and international corporations, private investors and business associations,
• federal institutions,
• foreign governments,
• a broad range of experts, including architects, planners, and their professional associations,
• the urban population including citizen and neighbourhood initiatives.

Berlin politicians and planners have had to engage all of these actors and interests in long discussions regarding goals and objectives for the city’s urban planning and development. These discussions were initially complicated by the fact that there was no formal, legal basis for planning following reunification at the beginning of the 1990s in Berlin. A land use plan based on West German legal standards was developed for West Berlin in 1988 that defined primary spatial planning criteria, but this plan was already irrelevant in 1990. Meanwhile, a general development plan created in 1980 for East Berlin was at the very most only relevant in terms of provoking some thinking, and the GDR People’s Congress had adopted substantial aspects of the FRG’s legal codes regarding planning and construction months before Berlin’s reunification. West German law was in any case comprehensively applied after the official unification of former East Germany with the Federal Republic of Germany, but some specific planning instruments were still missing, such as the land use plan and the building plan (Flächennutzungsplan and Bebauungsplan).

As with urban restructuring in general during this challenging phase of Berlin’s history, the development of new planning instruments and codes as called for by planning and building legal standards was further complicated by the fact that Berlin was governed throughout the 1990s by one coalition or another. While Berlin was governed by Social Democrats and Greens briefly at the time of the city’s reunification, since this time it has been ruled by Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. The two most important administrative departments concerning urban planning – ‘Building, Housing, and Traffic’ and ‘Urban Development and Environmental Protection’ - have during this time been directed by ministers of differing political parties. This ‘party mathematics’ was intended to ensure that the most important political (and therefore societal) interests, values and objectives would be taken into consideration in questions of urban planning. But quite often this only led to watered-down compromises, for example with the Planwerk Innenstadt (cp. below, chs. 3 & 4) that was adopted by the Berlin Ministry in 1999, about which a critic expressed the following:

"The ‘Planwerk’ that has been adopted is a classic example of consensus democracy. The plan is without either teeth or authority, and it is implicitly acknowledged that critics will eventually reduce what is there to an absolute nothing... One does not have to be a prophet to predict that this ‘Planwerk’ will find a quiet resting place in the overflowing archives of Berlin urban development plans."

In addition to the above described ‘dualism’ regarding political and administrative responsibility for urban development, Berlin is at the same time a city and a federal state that is divided into 23 districts. Formally, the districts can be compared with cities in other states, but the districts have considerably less authority and fewer legal instruments at their disposal. Still, responsibilities for city and project planning along with the corresponding permitting processes are divided (and in some cases overlap) between the district and the Berlin ministeries. This situation leads again and again to conflicts, that are due in some cases to political motivations and in others to the very different interests of the ministry and the districts, which differ among themselves according to their particular populations. The earlier presented list of actors involved in Berlin urban planning and development must therefore be complemented by those active at the district level, as these local actors often play key roles in discussions regarding individual development projects (cp. Ch. 5).

While a new legal planning framework was being created in the first half of the 1990s, vastly exaggerated forecasts concerning Berlin’s further development were being made, which increased expectations in business circles. It seemed that the planning forecasters and commercial actors had a way of heating each other up, and so decision-makers were figuring on a yearly population growth of as many as 40 000 new residents. It was also predicted that the demand for office area would double in the next decade, and that a growth rate of at least 50 per cent could be expected in the demand for retail square footage. Apparent factors behind these boom-forecasts were above all else the so-called ‘catch-up’ needs of East Berliners, but also the new capital city functions and the predicted role for Berlin as a ‘gateway to Eastern Europe.’ The demand expressed by investors and real estate companies in the early 1990s, especially in Mitte (central Berlin), was twice as high as the supply of possible projects estimated by planners. And so land values and rents sky-rocketed. Meanwhile, due to an escalating crisis in the city’s own financial situation, Berlin was increasingly dependent on larger investors. High land costs and the financial power of such large investors and developers led repeatedly to conflicts (and compromises) concerning building densities and heights as well as building design. Such conflicts influenced discussions about the developing models of the ‘European City’ and ‘Berlin Architecture.’ Such questions were further debated in discussions involving the Planwerk Innenstadt and related method of Critical Reconstruction.

"Berlin, the European City," is a significant expression that emerged in Berlin during the creation of Berlin’s new comprehensive land use plan adopted in 1994. This phrase was expected to be of increasing importance in influencing further work on Berlin planning methods and models, whereby ‘European cities’ are characterised by their

• specifically European public qualities and separation of public and private spaces,
• mixtures of residential, commercial, service, and cultural activities and functions,
• special local identities that are manifested in historic physical structures, streetscapes and ground plans.

This expression reflects ideas that were articulated in the 1980s during West Berlin’s International Building Exhibition (IBA), "accompanying a rebirth of the city neighbourhood and its defence with respect to the urban destruction of the 1960s and 1970s." As orientation for the more recent planning in Berlin, especially for the inner city, it has thus been possible to use the ideas of ‘careful urban renewal’ from the 1980s: "The fundamental philosophy remains (until today) that of an emphasis on a respectful dealing with historical structures and patterns, the idea of a diverse and complex city, a process that encourages citizen participation, and a sensitivity toward Berlin architectural styles and their further development" This briefly mentioned Critical Reconstruction method helped provide some initial guidance to planners and investors during the early 1990s when planning instruments were not yet available (such as the earlier noted, legally prescribed land use and building plans). This method also offered a significant basis for judging the range of urban design competitions organised by the city authorities to give some direction to the variety of large development projects being carried out in Berlin.

The Critical Reconstruction method argues not only for traditional street and building plans, but also for the restoration of historical streetscapes and building facades and heights as well as architectural styles and patterns and a return to block patterns (and the accompanying densification and in-fill of vacant lots).

The city’s application of these Berlin principles of urban reconstruction during the 1990s led to numerous conflicts with investors, with concerned experts and citizens, and also between differing city and district departments. While investors primarily wanted higher building densities to make individual projects more profitable, others were critical of increasing densities as they feared a loss of inner-city open and green spaces. The most heated debates took place between the city’s urban development and transportation administration, and their respective political leadership. The call for rebuilding and narrowing some broad streets, especially those created by the GDR in the inner city, but also those developed during the ‘auto-friendly’ years of West Berlin, ran into great resistance from Berlin’s Transportation Minister. But in addition to this, already existing conflicts flared up again over Planwerk Innenstadt between advocates of Critical Reconstruction and critical planners and architects - especially in East Berlin.

Planwerk Innenstadt is discussed in some detail in other places (cp. chs. 4 & 5), while here only some of the main goals and objectives will be presented (remembering that this plan contains much of the important guidance for future urban development in Berlin). The Planwerk Innenstadt - as it was presented in its draft form to the public for the first time in 1996 – offered for the first time since the City’s reunification

"...a comprehensive concept for redeveloping both the historical inner city and the so-called ‘City West’ downtown. A primary objective was to encourage a development of the entire Berlin inner city in ways that would be attractive in urban design terms as well as be economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable... a stated goal of the Planwerk Innenstadt is to illustrate and encourage a city for the 21st Century... guiding concepts are in such areas as mobility, density, sustainability, urbanity and identity. Related Planwerk Innenstadt discussions and refinements also offered a contribution to a mental reintegration of the formerly divided East and West Berlin populations, and to this end presented an outline of a formulation for a new, reintegrated city identity."

And so the Planwerk Innenstadt pursued not only the goal of reuniting the two former city centres with urban design measures, but also the objective of bringing the people of the two city halves together again.

This second objective has apparently met with only limited success. There are for example very different opinions among politicians and planners regarding Planwerk’s historically sensitive (as others state: nostalgic) picture (cp. Ch. 5). The Planwerk Innenstadt is thus criticised for its assumptions regarding the necessity and desirability of a single centre for Berlin. Critics here referred not only to the development of other European cities over the last 50 years (suburbanisation, loss of downtowns, etc), but also to the argument that the creation of a single, new city centre would mean "the rejection of a city of publicly lived and expressed social and political differences." Another form of critique - that seems to have more of a foundation - attacks the Planwerk Innenstadt and its applied method of Critical Reconstruction not only for ignoring, but seeking to extinguish the urban development of the post-war decades in Berlin: urban development and an image of the city with that a substantial part of the local population identifies.

Undoubtedly, Planwerk Innenstadt created a strong model for redeveloping and densifying the inner city, and for seeking to maintain (or regain) housing in the downtown neighbourhoods. Further, Planwerk cannot be argued with for wanting to reduce further urban sprawl while encouraging sustainable urban development. But it has to be questioned just what Planwerk Innenstadt advocates hope to achieve when they respond to critics - who attempt to defend the GDR history of urban design and planning - with such comments: "The critique offered by ex-GDR intellectuals is a peculiar thing all on its own. There is no real reason to have to respond to or to try to do justice to their arguments."

Such arguing is however counter-productive to one of Planwerk’s own fundamental goals - that of supporting ‘mental reintegration’ of the formerly divided populations. This is all the more true when one realises that after the adoption of the Planwerk Innenstadt by the Berlin Ministry in May 1999, it was not related to any legally binding instruments (such as the land use or building plans). Implementation of the Planwerk Innenstadt, according to the words of the Minister for Urban Development, will depend on "judgement calls that must be respected by district planners." And so the Planwerk Innenstadt does indeed depend on a fairly broad consensus of all concerned parties, for the achievement of its stated urban design objectives.

Berlin’s reunification, and the accompanying euphoria as well as anxieties surrounding it, led at least to the beginnings of a new planning culture including broader public discussions concerning urban development issues. Approaches developed in the 1980s through Berlin’s International Building Exhibition also had a great influence here, such as the insight that precisely in times of transition, "Politicians and administrators do not on their own have the capacities and know-how to answer all of the questions presented by urban development..." With this in mind, in 1991 the Berlin Minister responsible for the city’s first comprehensive land use plan organised an advisory council known as the ‘Stadtforum’ (city forum), which brought together a wide spectrum of experts and facilitated public discussions around key issues. This minister wrote "that the most important instrument in preparing the plan (1994 land use plan) was what we call the 'city forum.' Since 1991 the forum has provided the possibility to discuss basic issues and goals. The group consisted of 80 leading figures in the community." The forum has since met approximately 80 times, dealing with a wide range of urban planning issues. Through its extroverted nature, the forum has also achieved a fair amount of media attention. Still, this group has remained a discursive instrument that provides politicians with advice and the public with information, but it is not an instrument of public participation. This deficit regarding public involvement quickly brought forth criticism, and among other things led to the founding of the ‘Stadtforum von unten’ (city forum from below). Some of the main organisers of this critical forum were associated with the East German PDS political party, who brought attention to the lack of consideration given by the Stadtforum to experts from East Berlin.

The Berlin urban development administration did at least respond to criticisms of inadequate public involvement by creating two further instruments concerning public information and participation:

"...three areas dealing with public involvement have taken shape... next to the Stadtforum which formulates and discusses future scenarios for the city..., the StadtProjekte (CityProjects) as an event series concerns itself with more specific problem-based questions that emerge between the classical field of urban planning and other disciplines. Meanwhile, ‘Planungswerkstätten’ (Planning Workshops) involve relevant experts and take on and analyse concrete planning out in the field."

Beyond this, a form of ‘Quartiersmanagement’ has been developed to work with neighbourhoods characterised as being ‘under-developed,’ seeking to upgrade these ‘problem areas' both socially and spatially. A primary objective here is to increase public involvement and responsibility outside of the formal and legally-prescribed participation processes. A variety of Local Agenda 21 initiatives also work to increase participation.

It can be said that a range of innovative participatory instruments have been developed since Berlin’s reunification, in particular in the area of public information services, and in spite of all the criticism, there are few large cities where there has been a greater amount of public discussion over questions of urban development. At the same time, it must be said that all this discussion has irritated some Berlin planners, and that some politicians have expressed a ‘certain amount of ambivalence’ towards such participatory instruments and methods. The Berlin Building Director (Senatsbaudirektor) has for example written about such questions with respect to Planwerk Innenstadt:

"When one reviews the large number of strategies that European metropolises used to direct comprehensive urban development efforts over the course of the 20^th century, then it can be seen that the created plans have only emerged out of the work of planners, and not as the result of democratic processes... neither Scharoun’s ‘Collective Plan’ nor the plan for the Kulturforum, nor the plan for the Märkische Viertel (urban quarter in West Berlin)... and of course in no way were the plans for Stalinallee, Fischerkiez and Marzahn (in East Berlin) the results of complex, democratic decision-making processes... this history is written into the record for all to read, especially those that have criticised the Planwerk Innenstadt for its weaknesses regarding participation."

Such comments express not only ambivalence, but perhaps also reflect some of the wounds that were suffered during the (at times) very caustic arguments, especially those revolving around the Planwerk Innenstadt.

It could also be that behind such comments are realisations that urban planning is in any case only to be implemented through compromise, and that planning is a process carried out amidst the tensions of a great range of differing interests. Hoffman-Axthelm, who as an urban planner played a significant role in developing the Planwerk Innenstadt, expresses such a view of planning as it revolves around compromises. He has written for example:

"Political decisions have to take into account the very real political context in which such a Planwerk Innenstadt is created... the watchful eyes of competing governmental departments, political opponents, and reporters with their malicious glee... Such departments are not even unified among themselves, but rather reflect all of the contradictions found in the real world. Positions are argued that are irreconcilable not only objectively speaking but also amongst varying professional positions... It is clear that such processes demand numerous concessions from planners..."

It remains doubtful in the end whether these concessions will lead to compromises that truly encourage a social and psychological reintegration of the formerly divided city. Even if it may not be politically correct still to be speaking of Berlin as a ‘mentally divided city,’ the election results for the Berlin Parliament in October, 1999, speak another truth. The PDS, as the successorparty to the former East German state party of the SED, won about four per cent of the vote in West Berlin, but in East Berlin received about 40 per cent, and so is the strongest party in the Eastern districts, ahead of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats who together govern the City. "Berlin may be coming together more and more - but every election reveals once again where the dividing lines are. There is no doubt that this is currently one of the great political challenges..." In the end, urban planning and development are perhaps the most important instruments available to city governments. Are planners up to these challenges? This will be seen more than anywhere else in further urban developments and projects in the old, new centre of Berlin.

In 1989 West Berlin had about two million and East Berlin about 1.2 million residents. The two city halves covered surface areas of about 480 km² and 403 km^2. (cp.: Statistisches Landesamt Berlin, Kleine Berlin Statistik (Berlin: Kulturbuchverlag, 1999)