Berlin

Erin Maryse C. Aralar

2007-42570
Arch 162
Fast Facts
Location: 52° 32’ N, 13° 25’ E
Area: 883 km2
Altitude: 30m above sea level
Population: City- 3, 440, 441
Metro- 5, 000, 000
• Capital and largest city of Germany
• Rich cultural and historical background
• The municipal area has more trees than
Paris, more bridges than Venice, 3 airports,
3 opera houses, 2 zoos, 150 concert halls
and theaters, and 170+ museums and
exhibitions
• In 2006 the German capital was awarded
the title “UNESCO City of Design”.
Berlin (view from Google Earth)
TIMELINE OF BERLIN
Early Stages (1237-1701)
1237
Official founding of Berlin
1411
Emerged from the 2
Hohenzollern family 1539 1648
merchant settlements of
awarded the Margrave Reformation in End of Thity
Berlin and Cölln
of Brandenburg Brandenburg Years’ War

1200 1300 1400 1500 1600

1389 1432 1647 1671

Berlin and Cölln formed a Berlin and Cölln merged to An avenue is laid out Expansion of
union, joined the Hanseatic form a single municipality between City Palace Jewish
Legue and prospered as a and Tiergarten (now community
trading and fishing town Unter den Linden)
TIMELINE OF BERLIN
Kingdom of Prussia (1701-1871)
1792
1701 First paved 1809 1856
Brandenburg and 1740 highway opened Prussia grants First waterworks 1869
Prussia unite to Berlin develops into connecting to Berlin self- goes into Completion of
from the Kingdom a center of Potsdam government operation Berlin Town Hall
of Prussia enlightenment

1700 1800

1726 1791 1806 1838 1861 1871

Conversion of Brandenburg Gate is French First railroad Expansion of Berlin became
“plague house” to officially opened occupies connecting Berlin by the Capital of the
Charite, Berlin’s Berlin to Potsdam incorporating German Empire
oldest hospital and suburbs
medical school
TIMELINE OF BERLIN
German Empire (1871-1918) and Weimar Republic (1919-1933)

1874 1902 1923 1933

Berlin City Planner James Berlin’s U-Bahn Tempelhuf Adolf Hitler’s rise to power
Hobrecht Starts work on (underground railway 1914-18 Airport goes into End of democracy in
extensive drainage system goes into operation) World War I operation Germany

1800 1900

1879 1911-12 1920 1929

Siemens & Halske Berlin expands to Greater Berlin Act Great Depression
present the world’s first form Greater Expansion of Berlin
electric railway Berlin
TIMELINE OF BERLIN
Nazi Regime (1933-1945) , Cold War, Division and Unification of Berlin (1945-2001)

1945
End of World War II
Berlin and Germany 1950 2001
1933 Demolishing of 1961 Move of gov’t seat
Opened the first divided into 4 sectors
Old City Palace in Construction 1989 from Bonn to
concentration camp (France, Britain, US, East Berlin of Berlin Wall Berlin is complete
Soviet Union) Fall of Berlin Wall

1900

1938 1946-49 1955-59 1976 1990

Annexation of Austria Berlin becomes a Construction Housing boom Reunification of
Start of Jewish genocide Cold War hotspot boom: Schonefeld (East) East and West
in concentration camps Airport (East), Cultural centers Germany (including
expressways (West) Berlin)
(West), restoration
of Brandenburg
gate
Founding. Growth. Evolution.
FORMATION OF BERLIN
Geography
•Situated on the northeastern side of
Germany
•Mainly built on sandy glacial soil,
surrounded by forest-rimmed lakes
•Marshy terrain
•Located at the wide glacial valley of
the Spree River
•Although located 180km from the
Baltic Sea, Berlin still prospered
because it provided a network of
overland trade routes to Meissen,
Dresden, Baltic coast, Magdeburg,
Cracow (Poland), and some Russian
territories

Map of Germany showing location of Berlin

Early years
•Started as a merchant and fishing
settlement in the 1200s (Berlin
and Cölln)
•Prospered as an agricultural and
merchant village
•Interconnections between the
old villages became the major
highways of Berlin today

Photo: Plan of Berlin, 1237

Old Berlin and Cölln today (view from Google Earth)
Berlin, 1652
Berlin, 1688
Baroque Period
•Fortifications were put up
during the 16th and 17th
centuries due to the
advancement in artillery
techniques
•Surrounding areas are still
agricultural and evidence of grid
formations

Photo: Berlin surrounded by

fortifications and moats, 1740
Berlin
Churches
and Royal
residence,
1740
Industrial Period
•Berlin grew without any
development concepts
•Creation of highways and
waterways
•Industries to the north and east
•Country houses to the west

Photo: Berlin, 1833

Industrial Period
Peter Joseph Lenne- architect
and landscape architect
•designed Tiergarten Park and
the Sanssouci Gardens, mostly
open spaces and canals
•attempted to layout Berlin in
1840, but was not successful

Photo: Tiergarten Park 1793,

Berlin
Industrial Period
Peter Joseph Lenne- architect
and landscape architect
•designed Tiergarten Park and
the Sanssouci Gardens, mostly
open spaces and canals
•attempted to layout Berlin in
1840, but was not successful

Photo: Tiergarten Park today,

Berlin
Industrial Period
•James Hobrecht- city planner,
created a zoning ordinance for
Berlin, no building regulations,
just transportation and drainage
systems
•Plan included housing blocks of
approximately the same size,
distributor roads to connect to
main radial roads
•plan led to very dense
development especially in the
city's core and provided regular
open spaces and public squares.

Photo: Hobrecht’s plan, 1862

Berlin
1884
Industrial Period
•Mid 19th century, eight private
railway companies built rail lines
between Berlin and other German
cities, the tracks and facilities often
crossing over existing building
structures and road networks
•tied to a long distance rail system by
a railway ring only when it became
necessary for military reasons
•The city grew into the rural areas
alongside the new suburban road
and rail routes at the end of the 19th
century when concentric growth was
replaced by radial growth.

Photo: Berlin’s railway system, 1902

20th Century
•The moat and fortifications of
the 17th century are now
occupied by the S-Bahn (took
place in 1922)

Photo: Inner city of Berlin, early

20th century
Greater Berlin
Act
•Greater Berlin Act- law passed
by the Prussian government in
1920 that greatly expanded the
size of Berlin into 20 boroughs
•Berlin acquired 7 towns:
Charlottenburg, Köpenick, Lichte
nberg,Neukölln, Schöneberg,
Spandau and Wilmersdorf, in
effect, acquiring also green areas

Photo: Map showing new merged

territories to Berlin, 1920 (Old
Berlin indicated in purple)
Nazi and WW II
•Adolf Hitler wanted a new city
plan for Berlin to create a world
capital called “Germania”
•Hitler wanted a north-south axis
•Planning themes: garden cities,
town extension plans
•Not much construction has been
made due to World War II
•A lot of buildings in Berlin were
destroyed including the
Brandenburg Gate

Photo: Devastation of Berlin,

1945
Post War and
Division
•Germany and Berlin were
divided into four sectors (French,
British, American, and Soviet)
•Soviet sector became East Berlin
(GDR), while the other 3 became
West Berlin (FRG). The rest of
Germany was divided the same
way due to the Cold War
•Resulted to the creation of 2
“Germanies”

Photo: Four sectors of Germany

Devil’s Mountain
(Teufelsberg)- one of
the hills constructed
from the rubble left by
WW II
 Post War and
Division
•West Berlin became an enclave to
East Germany and Bonn became
the capital of west Germany
•East Berlin became the capital of
East Germany
•1961- Berlin Wall was constructed,
physically separating East and West
Berlin. Even roads and railways
were blocked.
•The Berlin Wall was 155km (96
miles) long and 3.6m (11.86 ft) high
with 302 watchtowers. More than
170 people were killed trying to
escape

Photo: Four sectors of Berlin

 West Berlin
•Thought was given to a reunified
urban layout, continuing the
discussion on much the same lines as
before and after World War II
•Green space policy, based largely on
the early open space plan and the
post-war concept of the car-friendly
city
•Urban development concentrated on
the inner-urban situation, providing
specific working concepts for the
redevelopment of both buildings and
districts
•Detailed concepts were displayed at
the International Building Exhibition
of 1987

Photo: Land Use and Zoning of West

Berlin, 1972
 East Berlin
•Eastern half always had to struggle
with the demographic problems
associated with the GDR general
housing policy, concentrating as it did
on industrial locations and the inner
cities
•The development centered on
industrial mass production of flats and
buildings on the urban fringe.
•Hellersdorf – Largest prefabricated
housing estate with 150, 000 flats
•West Berlin obviously had better
economy and less chaotic than the
East, as a result, West Berlin had
better city form

Photo: East Berlin

Fall of Berlin
Wall
•After the fall of the Berlin Wall
in 1989, the “Planwerk
Innenstadt” (inner city planning)
concept proposed urban design
principles which were
conservative and idealistically
orientated towards a historic
Berlin. The diversity of the
current urban shape was to be
changed by a homogeneous
urban design of the “Berlin-
Prussian" style

Photo: Berlin Wall

Fall of Berlin
Wall
•Federal Republic: First the idea
of green space and wedges, still
alive today; the idea of an axis
which arose during the baroque
period and was actively pursued
during the Third Reich and the
GDR; and finally a concept for
the urban space as
redevelopment of the inner city
blocks.

Photo: Demolishing the Berlin

Wall
Recent Years
•The German Parliament voted to
move the capital back to Berlin
•Important development projects
during the 1990's were adjacent
new government district on the
bank of the Spree river
•Most of the existing buildings
were restored or renovated
•In 1999, the restored Reichstag
building was used for the
parliament’s first meeting

Photo: Restored Reichstag Building

Recent Years
•Redevelopment of Potsdamer
Platz was another major project
that bridged the eastern and
western parts of the city and
showcased new ideas in
architecture and urban design.
•Reduced the number of
boroughs from 23 to 12 to make
the city more cost effective

Photo: Postdamer Platz

23 Boroughs of
Berlin (2000)
12 Boroughs of
Berlin (2005)
Conclusion
• Geography played a major role in the founding of Berlin. The existence of
Spree river provided water for the agricultural land as well as source of
income by means of fishing. Its location was ideal because it provided a
network of overland trade routes for its neighboring towns and even
countries.
• History, culture, economy and politics are the main factors that influenced
the urban shape and the city function of Berlin.
• Development of the city function of Berlin was affected mainly by the
technology present at a certain time. Berlin evolved from an agricultural/
trade settlement, to a defense/military town, to an industrial and
transportation city, to Germany’s present day cultural, political, industrial,
media and science capital.
LAND USE AND ZONING MAPS
Hobrecht Plan
1862
Zoning Plan
1925
Speer Plan
1939
Land Use Plan
1950
Building and Land
Use Plan
1961
General
Development Plan
1969
General
Development Plan
1989
General
Development Plan
1994
General
Development Plan
2004
Open Space Plan
Sources
Cultures of the World: Germany. Time Books international: Singapore, 1995.
Wise, Michael. Capital Dilemma: Germany’s search for a new architecture of democracy. Princeton Architectural Press: US, 1998.
• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/62055/Berlin/21636/Physical-and-human-geography
• http://baerentouren.de/berlin_graphics.html (Old pictures)
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Maps_of_Berlin (Old maps)
• http://www.historicmapsrestored.com/international/europe/berlin1833.html (old maps)
• http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/planen/basisdaten_stadtentwicklung/monitoring/index.shtml
• http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/planen/fnp/en/historie/index.shtml (land use maps)
• http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/google_map_Berlin.htm
• http://www.umich.edu/~csfound/545/1997/sca/DOCUMENT.html
• http://www.newberlin.org/government/departments/community-development/gislis-services/maps/zoning.aspx
• http://www.berlin.de/berlin-im-ueberblick/geschichte/index.en.html
• http://www.indianchieftravel.com/en/germany/berlin/berlin/berlin-germany-5
• http://www.qub.ac.uk/ep/research/costc10/findoc/cs07-ber.pdf
• http://www.aviewoncities.com/berlin/berlinfacts.htm
• http://courses.umass.edu/latour/Germany/ljennings/index.html
• http://www.etsy.com/listing/33503400/1902-antique-print-of-the-berlin-railway?image_id=99095145