Press information
 |
Harald Bodenschatz / Victoria Grau/ Christiane Post / Max Welch Guerra (eds.) |
New from DOM publishers:
Harald Bodenschatz / Victoria Grau/ Christiane Post / Max Welch Guerra (eds.)
Urban Planning in Nazi Germany
Attack, triumph, terror in the European context 1933-1945
Urban planning was an essential instrument of the National Socialist dictatorship. It served to legitimise rule and demonstrate strength, accompanied rearmament and war, conveyed the socio-political programme, was a medium of competition with other states, and systematically marginalised population groups. In this role, the urban planning of National Socialism—as well as that of other European dictatorships—is still underestimated today. Yet urban planning in particular represents a meaningful historical source about the functioning and agenda of the regime.
In Urban Planning in National Socialism. Attack, triumph, terror in the European context 1933-1945, the authors, which include Harald Bodenschatz, Victoria Grau, Christiane Post, and Max Welch Guerra, examine the urban planning of the Nazi dictatorship for the first time in the context of other European dictatorships of the time, and in its extraordinary dynamism and complexity. Between 1933 and 1945, the major themes of urban planning, the cast of principal actors, the content of the regime’s propaganda, the cities and areas affected, programs and practices, the winners and losers, changed several times. The authors divide this sometimes hectic transformation of urban planning, with all its conceptual controversies, into three phases: attack (1933-1937), triumph (1937-1941), and terror (1941-1945). The volume goes far beyond the (individual) depictions of well-known monumental buildings and central axes, and also takes into account housing construction, urban renewal, internal colonisation, industrial and military facilities, large-scale infrastructure projects, as well as educational institutions and camps of various kinds. In doing so, the work ultimately corrects the often simplistic images and interpretations of the Nazi era, such as the transformation of Berlin into the "capital of the world Germania."
The monograph manages to create a multifaceted and comprehensive overview of the structural and spatial planning and implementation of National Socialism, which makes it possible to recognise differences and similarities in relation to other contemporary European dictatorships. The author team's approach goes far beyond planning and design criteria and appeals to anyone interested in the fundamental mechanisms of dictatorships in the 20th century.
 Source: Harald Bodenschatz Collection |
 Source: Die Baukunst November 1941, p. 225 |
 Source: Schönleben 1943, p. 104 |