Hobrecht-Plan
Encyclopedia
The Hobrecht-Plan is the binding land-use plan for Berlin in the 19. century. It is named after its main editor James Hobrecht (1825-1902) who was serving for the royal-prussian urban planning
police ("Baupolizei"). The finalized plan "Bebauungsplan der Umgebungen Berlins" (binding land-use plan for the environs of Berlin) was resolved in 1862 intended for a time frame of about 50 years. The plan did not only cover the area around the cities of Berlin
and Charlottenburg
but it did describe also a spatial regional planning
on a large perimeter.
led to a swift rural exodus
at the beginning of the 19. century. Berlin as the Prussian capital was the target of many emigrants resulting in a rapid growth. After the Napoleonic Wars
the city grew by 10,000 new inhabitants every year accelerating in the mid of the century so that the metro area would reach the millions at the end of the century (see Berlin population statistics
).
There had been already some urban planning on the city before Hobrecht. This includes proposals from Karl Friedrich Schinkel
and planning maps from Johann Carl Ludwig Schmid
dating to 1825 and 1830. Peter Joseph Lenné
proposed a wider regional planning in 1840 named "Projektierte Schmuck- und Grenzzüge von Berlin mit nächster Umgebung" (projected decorative and boundary lines of Berlin and its immediate vicinity). All the persons were well-renowned landscape architects.
Hobrecht was instead a geodesist (professional land surveyor) who had just extended his formation with a civil engineer
examination on transportation planning ("Wasser-, Wege- und Eisenbahnbaumeisterprüfung") in 1858. Soon after entering the royal-prussian urban planning police he was commanded in 1859 to head the commission on creation of a land-use plan for Berlin and its environs. He traveled to Hamburg, Paris and London in 1860 to learn about the contemporary development status in urban planning especially their sewer systems.
In 1860 the Berlin Customs Wall
were supposed to be dissolved and there were plans on amalgamation of the many suburbs of Berlin which were to be taken place on 1. January 1861. Based on the just finished land surveys and existing land-use proposals James Hobrecht constructed a map showing a possible land-use for a city at a projected size of 1.5 to 2 million inhabitants.
That Hobrecht-Plan did show two large ring roads encircling both of Berlin and Charlottenburg with dozens of arterial roads entering the city. The area between these were divided into rectangular spaces. Unlike the urban planning of Paris, Hobrecht did respect the existing roads, villages and railways including them into the planning process. The map was resolved on 18. July 1862 and it would influence the urban structure of Berlin for the centuries to come.
tenement housing estates rings.
While Hobrecht asked for the front-buildings to be designed for upper and middle class people the backyard buildings were mostly strickened with low sun-light conditions and poor ventilation. The situation was worsened in the Gründerzeit
times with housing construction running too slow so that the population density rose beyond 1000 inhabitans per square kilometer - in many backyard rooms there were 2 to 3 men per room and a modern sewer system was not yet existant. That latter would be completed just in 1893.
This also indicates that he had no real intention to prevent the housing conditions of the lower class which he might have seen as normal in his times. The reception in the late 20. century is much more favorable to the Hobrecht-Plan as it did also establish the basis to resolve the problems that were to come. There are no records whether he did fight behind closed doors - but he was called off on 15. December 1861 already. He went to Stettin to build a water supply system and to plan the sewer system which would be built in 1870. With the help of his brother Arthur Hobrecht - who would eventually become lord mayor of Berlin in 1872 - he was able to return to Berlin in 1869 ordered to plan the sewer system for the city. The construction works would start in 1873 lasting until 1893. From 1885 to 1897 he was council member commissioned for urban planning.
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
police ("Baupolizei"). The finalized plan "Bebauungsplan der Umgebungen Berlins" (binding land-use plan for the environs of Berlin) was resolved in 1862 intended for a time frame of about 50 years. The plan did not only cover the area around the cities of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
but it did describe also a spatial regional planning
Regional planning
Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. The related field of urban planning deals with the specific issues of city planning...
on a large perimeter.
History
The industrial revolutionIndustrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
led to a swift rural exodus
Rural exodus
Rural flight is a term used to describe the migratory patterns of peoples from rural areas into urban areas.In modern times, it often occurs in a region following the industrialization of agriculture when fewer people are needed to bring the same amount of agricultural output to market and related...
at the beginning of the 19. century. Berlin as the Prussian capital was the target of many emigrants resulting in a rapid growth. After the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
the city grew by 10,000 new inhabitants every year accelerating in the mid of the century so that the metro area would reach the millions at the end of the century (see Berlin population statistics
Berlin population statistics
Berlin is the second most populous city in the European Union, as calculated by city-proper population .- Population by borough :-Historical development of Berlin's population:...
).
There had been already some urban planning on the city before Hobrecht. This includes proposals from Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Karl Friedrich Schinkel was a Prussian architect, city planner, and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassical and neogothic buildings.-Biography:Schinkel was born in Neuruppin, Margraviate of...
and planning maps from Johann Carl Ludwig Schmid
Johann Carl Ludwig Schmid
Johann Carl Ludwig Schmid was a German architect. He succeeded August Günther as leader of the Oberbaudeputation in 1842 and in 1848 the kingdom of Prussia made him director of Berlin's Bauakademie....
dating to 1825 and 1830. Peter Joseph Lenné
Peter Joseph Lenné
Peter Joseph Lenné was a Prussian gardener and landscape architect from Bonn who worked in the German classicist style.-Childhood and development:...
proposed a wider regional planning in 1840 named "Projektierte Schmuck- und Grenzzüge von Berlin mit nächster Umgebung" (projected decorative and boundary lines of Berlin and its immediate vicinity). All the persons were well-renowned landscape architects.
Hobrecht was instead a geodesist (professional land surveyor) who had just extended his formation with a civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
examination on transportation planning ("Wasser-, Wege- und Eisenbahnbaumeisterprüfung") in 1858. Soon after entering the royal-prussian urban planning police he was commanded in 1859 to head the commission on creation of a land-use plan for Berlin and its environs. He traveled to Hamburg, Paris and London in 1860 to learn about the contemporary development status in urban planning especially their sewer systems.
In 1860 the Berlin Customs Wall
Berlin Customs Wall
The Berlin Customs Wall was a ring wall around the historic city of Berlin; the wall itself had no defence function but was used to facilitate the levying of taxes on the import and export of goods which was the primary income of many cities at the time.- History :The wall was erected...
were supposed to be dissolved and there were plans on amalgamation of the many suburbs of Berlin which were to be taken place on 1. January 1861. Based on the just finished land surveys and existing land-use proposals James Hobrecht constructed a map showing a possible land-use for a city at a projected size of 1.5 to 2 million inhabitants.
That Hobrecht-Plan did show two large ring roads encircling both of Berlin and Charlottenburg with dozens of arterial roads entering the city. The area between these were divided into rectangular spaces. Unlike the urban planning of Paris, Hobrecht did respect the existing roads, villages and railways including them into the planning process. The map was resolved on 18. July 1862 and it would influence the urban structure of Berlin for the centuries to come.
Results
The Hobrecht-Plan was detailed for street area giving only the boundary lines for the housing construction. The housing construction business was rather unregulated in comparison with modern construction rules - there were some basic constraints to allow fire brigades to do their work by having the maximum height limited to 20 meter and each house must be reachable from the streets via a backyard of at least 5.34 × 5.34 m in size to allow the fire engine to turn. In effect speculative builders took over with architecture designs that showed densiest packed construction to allow the maximum of rooms - the foundation of the MietskaserneKamienica (architecture)
Kamienica is a Polish term describing a type of residential building made of brick or stone, with at least 2 floors. The word is usually used to describe a building which is incorporated with other, similar buildings....
tenement housing estates rings.
While Hobrecht asked for the front-buildings to be designed for upper and middle class people the backyard buildings were mostly strickened with low sun-light conditions and poor ventilation. The situation was worsened in the Gründerzeit
Gründerzeit
' refers to the economic phase in 19th century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. At this time in Central Europe the age of industrialisation was taking place, whose beginnings were found in the 1840s...
times with housing construction running too slow so that the population density rose beyond 1000 inhabitans per square kilometer - in many backyard rooms there were 2 to 3 men per room and a modern sewer system was not yet existant. That latter would be completed just in 1893.
Reception
The Hobrecht-plan was criticized for decades as given the foundation for the social problems possibly even nurturing the street fights in the 1920s between red (communists) and brown (fascists) thugs in the crowded lower class quarters. Hobrecht himself was surely in the position and he had the education to outguess the results. He promoted his plan sayingThis also indicates that he had no real intention to prevent the housing conditions of the lower class which he might have seen as normal in his times. The reception in the late 20. century is much more favorable to the Hobrecht-Plan as it did also establish the basis to resolve the problems that were to come. There are no records whether he did fight behind closed doors - but he was called off on 15. December 1861 already. He went to Stettin to build a water supply system and to plan the sewer system which would be built in 1870. With the help of his brother Arthur Hobrecht - who would eventually become lord mayor of Berlin in 1872 - he was able to return to Berlin in 1869 ordered to plan the sewer system for the city. The construction works would start in 1873 lasting until 1893. From 1885 to 1897 he was council member commissioned for urban planning.
See also
- Berliner StadtringBundesautobahn 100is an Autobahn in Germany. The A 100 encloses the city centre of the German capital Berlin, running from the Wedding district of the Berlin-Mitte borough in a southwestern bow through Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and Tempelhof-Schöneberg to Neukölln...
- unfinished motorway mostly running along the outer ring of the Hobrecht-Plan. - Inner Ring Road, BerlinInner Ring Road, BerlinThe Inner Ring Road of Berlin ist a route of major roads around the historic center of Berlin encompassing the boroughs Mitte, Pankow and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg...
- road construction taking advantage of one of the inner Hobrecht-Plan ring roads.
Literature
- Johann Friedrich Geist, Klaus Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus.
- Klaus Strohmeyer: James Hobrecht. (1825–1902) und die Modernisierung der Stadt. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg 2000. ISBN 3-9329-8167-7
- Claus Bernet: The Hobrecht Plan (1862). In: Urban History 31, 2004, S. 400–419.
- Werner Hegemann: Das steinerne Berlin. Geschichte der größten Mietskasernenstadt der Welt. Bauwelt Fundamente, Berlin 1930. Neuausgabe gekürzt, 4. Aufl., 1988. ISBN 978-3-7643-6355-0
Web links
- http://fbinter.stadt-berlin.de/fb - planning instrument of modern Berlin - see "Historische Karten → Hobrechtplan 1862"