Main entry:

Diefendorf, Jeffry M., 1945- author

Title & Author:

In the wake of war : the reconstruction of German cities after World War II / Jeffry M. Diefendorf.

Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 1993.

Description:

xx, 403 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Restrictions:

MyiLibrary allows three users access at a time (21.03.2018).

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 365-392) and index.
Bombs and Rubble: The Air War and Its Consequences -- The War from the Air -- Cities of Rubble -- Work Amidst the Rubble -- Rubble Clearance and the Repair of Utilities -- Material for Rebuilding -- Labor in the Construction Industry -- Legal and Illegal Building -- The Face of Reconstruction: Architectural Style -- The Bauhaus and Deutscher Werkbund -- Heimatschutz and Traditional Architecture -- Nazi Architecture and Neoclassicism -- Postwar Architecture -- The Face of Reconstruction: The Role of Historic Preservation -- Principles of Historic Preservation -- Modernizing Cities -- Determined Preservationism -- Modernization and Preservation -- The Housing Problem -- Cooperative Housing -- Housing Policy under the National Socialists -- Postwar Housing -- Town Planning to 1945 -- Planning Traditions before 1933 -- Urban Planning during the Third Reich -- The Representative Cities Program -- From Representative Cities to Reconstruction -- Reconstruction Planning -- Planning and Planners after 1945 -- The Postwar Planners -- Planning Models -- The Extremes -- Pragmatic Planning -- Traffic Planning -- Reconstruction and Building Law -- The Framework: Building Law and Proposals for Reform to 1945 -- The Postwar Debate: Defining the Scope of a New Building Law -- Opposition to the New Laws: Property Rights and Politics -- The Strugle for a National Building Law -- Politics, Democracy, and the Law -- Organizing Reconstruction -- The Role of the Allied Occupation Governments -- State and National Reconstruction Agencies.

Summary:

In 1945, Germany's cities lay in ruins, destroyed by Allied bombers that left major architectural monuments badly damaged and much of the housing stock reduced to rubble. At the war's end, observers thought that it would take forty years to rebuild, but by the late 1950s West Germany's cities had risen anew. The housing crisis had been overcome and virtually all important monuments reconstructed, and the cities had reclaimed their characteristic identities. Everywhere there was a mixture of old and new: historic churches and town halls stood alongside new housing and department stores; ancient street layouts were crossed or circled by wide arteries; old city centers were balanced by garden suburbs laid out according to modern planning principles. In the Wake of War examines the questions raised by this remarkable feat of urban reconstruction. Jeffry M. Diefendorf explains who was primarily responsible for the reconstruction, what accounted for the speed of rebuilding, and how priorities were set and decisions acted upon. He argues that in such crucial areas as architectural style, urban planning, historic preservation, and housing policy, the Germans drew upon personnel, ideas, institutions, and practical experiences from the Nazi and pre-Nazi periods. Diefendorf shows how the rebuilding of West Germany's cities after 1945 can only be understood in terms of long-term continuities in urban development. The first comprehensive book in English on Germany's reconstruction, In the Wake of War examines postwar urban reconstruction from many perspectives, including architecture, historic restoration, housing, town planning and law, and it consistently interprets the features of German reconstruction within the context of continuous developments in these areas since the 1920s. This study will appeal to architects and urban planners as well as historians.

Resources:
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ISBN:

0195072197 (hardback)
9780195072198 (hardback)

Subject:

Bundesprüfstelle für Jugendgefährdende Schriften Bonn Jahrestagung
BMBF-Statusseminar
Urban renewal Germany History 20th century.
City planning Germany History 20th century.
Reconstruction (1939-1951) Germany.
Rénovation urbaine Allemagne Histoire 20e siècle.
Reconstruction, 1939-1951 Allemagne.
74.73 urban and rural renewal.
15.70 history of Europe.
History (Europe)
Reconstruction (1939-1951)
City planning
Urban renewal
Stadt
Stadtplanung
Städtebau
Wiederaufbau
Wederopbouw.
Stadsvernieuwing.
Germany
Deutschland
Cities Structure planning History

Form/genre:

History

Holdings:

Location: Library main 114785
Call No.: ID HT178.G4.D54; ID:96-B2638
Status: Available