REBUILDING A NEW EUROPEAN CAPITAL: AN EXAMINATION OF THE EFFECTS OF BERLIN’S PLANWERK INNENSTADT ON INNER CITY DEVELOPMENT By ALEXANDRA CRISTINA MONTEALEGRE A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2008 1 © 2008 Alexandra Cristina Montealegre 2 To Mimi and the Palast. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are numerous people I owe a debt of gratitude, as this project has been in the works for over four years. I would like to give a special thanks to Dr. David Griffiths, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who advised me to pick up Ghosts of Berlin, thus beginning this journey. Dr. Karin Crawford, formerly at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, initially exposed me to German critical theory and aesthetics, arming me with the theoretical toolbox necessary for this research. Thanks go to the planning officials and others who agreed to be interviewed for this paper. I also extend my gratitude to Regina Poly, Hans Brenner, and Ulrich Giersch for granting their permission to include their maps and drawings in my report. The financial assistance provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the University of Florida’s Center for European Studies, and the College of Design, Construction, and Planning enabled me to travel to gather research in Berlin. I also wish to thank my thesis committee chair, Dr. Chris Silver, and cochair, Dr. Richard Schneider, for their patience in reviewing my drafts. None of this would have been possible without the help, incessant encouragement, and tireless support of Ian Goldfarb, who has walked through Karl- Marx-Allee with me in freezing rain in order to get a feeling for the place. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES...........................................................................................................................7 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................8 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONS ....................................................................10 CHRONOLOGY............................................................................................................................12 ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................14 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................16 2 AN OVERVIEW OF URBAN PLANNING IN BERLIN.....................................................24 Berlin before November 9, 1989 ............................................................................................24 The Political and Economic Context of Urban Development after 1989...............................27 Political Life ....................................................................................................................27 German federal system.............................................................................................27 Local government within the federal system ...........................................................29 Berlin’s Bezirke and urban development .................................................................30 Centralized City Planning................................................................................................31 Post-Socialist Planning....................................................................................................35 Administrative restructuring ....................................................................................35 Privatizing the economy – the Treuhandanstalt ......................................................37 Restitution ................................................................................................................38 Economic and Fiscal Crisis .............................................................................................40 Economic restructuring since unification.................................................................41 Fiscal crisis...............................................................................................................41 Additional Actors and Their Roles.........................................................................................43 Real Estate Development ................................................................................................43 Public policy and demand ........................................................................................44 Developers and the state...........................................................................................44 Experts, Architects, and the Built Environment..............................................................45 The architects’ debate...............................................................................................45 Competitions ............................................................................................................47 Urban Planning, Memory, and Cultural Inclusion..................................................................48 Cultural Identity...............................................................................................................48 Politics of Space ..............................................................................................................49 Historic preservation ................................................................................................49 Cultural inclusion in the planning process ...............................................................52 5 Memory ...........................................................................................................................56 Summary.................................................................................................................................57 3 MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY................................................................................63 Characteristics.........................................................................................................................63 Methodology...........................................................................................................................65 Limitations..............................................................................................................................67 Summary.................................................................................................................................67 4 FINDINGS: THE POWER OF THE CENTER AND THE PLANWERK INNENSTADT.......................................................................................................................69 An Introduction to the Planwerk Innenstadt...........................................................................70 Housing: Space for New Ideas ...............................................................................................73 The Mietskaserne.............................................................................................................74 Postwar High-Rise Development ....................................................................................75 Housing in the Planwerk Innenstadt................................................................................79 Community Development: “The Social City”........................................................................83 Education.........................................................................................................................84 Preventative Healthcare...................................................................................................86 Public Safety....................................................................................................................87 Transportation Networks: “The Mobile City”........................................................................88 Sustainability: “The Green City”............................................................................................92 Local Agenda 21..............................................................................................................93 Climate Change and Energy Production .........................................................................94 Sustainable Mobility........................................................................................................97 Summary.................................................................................................................................98 5 CONCLUSION: A EUROPEAN METROPOLIS ...............................................................109 Measuring Up to the Definition of a European Capital........................................................109 The Unified City: From Modern to Post-Modern.................................................................111 The Influence of the Past ......................................................................................................112 Beyond Berlin: Opportunities for Further Research.............................................................113 APPENDIX HOUSING URBAN DEVELOPMENT PLAN..................................................115