For my final paper I am examining the differences between urban planning in post-World War II England and Germany. Up until I began researching I had little to no knowledge on the topic and thought that it would be an excellent way to expand my knowledge of Europe. What I found really interested me and one of the most interesting differences between the two nations was what to do with the cities that had been completely destroyed in the war. In England the most popular thought was to build completely anew and use new methods of urban planning and architecture. This can be demonstrated by the city of Plymouth that we studied earlier in the course. The English government decided to try something new and completely overhaul the urban planning process resulting in architecture and urban settlements never before seen in England. In Germany there was a stark difference in the way that these cities were to be rebuilt. First of all England had been on the winning side of the war and thus was in a much better financial position than that of Germany. It was partly because of this and partly because of German ideologies that there was much more opposition to completely abandoning German monuments and buildings that had been destroyed in the war. Some wanted to restore the great manifestations of German nationalism while others wanted to leave them in the past as remnants of the Nazi dictatorship. This is only one of the differences between the two nations but it is one of the most interesting because of the many different contributing factors.
– Zach Coates
Zach,
Would the rebuilding of some German cities not be influenced by England? After the Second World War Germany was divided amongst the four allied powers as a result of the Potsdam Conference. Thus England, France, the Soviet Union and the US all had areas of influence and military occupation in Germany. Each of the occupation zones were broken up for administrative purposes from 1945-1949. In practice, each of the four occupying powers wielded government authority in their respective zones and carried out different policies toward the population and local and state governments. By having influence on the governments would that not imply some sort of influence on Germany’s rebuilding effort.
This is a really cool research topic!! I have always been interested in WWII but mainly in the scope of the war itself and not in the sense of what needed to be rebuilt after the war. Whenever I read or watch movies on the war, I always see the battles and destruction that took place, but never thought about what happens to those cities after, and the different looks they may take on.