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This article analyses the dynamics of communication, specifically with regard to the significance of visualisations in urban planning between the two competing political regimes of East and West Germany in divided Berlin (1945–1989). The article will demonstrate the ways in which planners on either side of the Iron Curtain were confronted with matters unique to their own political contexts and conditions for public communication, as well as how they faced similar challenges in fields of urban renewal and negotiating public participation. The post-war decades in Berlin were marked by strong planning dynamics: large-scale reconstruction after WWII and the 'showcase character' of political confrontation and competition. In this context, new strategies of communicating urban planning to the public were developed, such as large-scale development plans, public exhibitions and cross-border media campaigns. Paradigmatic shifts during the mid-1970s generated new discourses about urban renewal and historic preservation. The new focus on small-scale planning in vivid and inhabited inner-city neighbourhoods made new forms of communication and public depiction necessary. In the context of social and political change as well as growing mediatisation, planning authorities utilised aspects of urban identity and civic participation to legitimise planning activities. The article traces two small-scale planning projects for neighbourhoods in East and West Berlin and investigates the interrelation of visual communication instruments in public discourses and planning procedures during the 1980s, a period that prominently featured the new strategy of comprehensive planning. Furthermore, the article highlights the key role of micro-scale changes in the management of urban renewal along both sides of the wall and the emergence of neighbourhood civil engagement and participation.

This article analyses the dynamics of communication, specifically with regard to the significance of visualisations in urban planning between the two competing political regimes of East and West Germany in divided Berlin (1945–1989). The article will demonstrate the ways in which planners on either side of the Iron Curtain were confronted with matters unique to their own political contexts and conditions for public communication, as well as how they faced similar challenges in fields of urban renewal and negotiating public participation. The post-war decades in Berlin were marked by strong planning dynamics: large-scale reconstruction after WWII and the 'showcase character' of political confrontation and competition. In this context, new strategies of communicating urban planning to the public were developed, such as large-scale development plans, public exhibitions and cross-border media campaigns. Paradigmatic shifts during the mid-1970s generated new discourses about urban renewal and historic preservation. The new focus on small-scale planning in vivid and inhabited inner-city neighbourhoods made new forms of communication and public depiction necessary. In the context of social and political change as well as growing mediatisation, planning authorities utilised aspects of urban identity and civic participation to legitimise planning activities. The article traces two small-scale planning projects for neighbourhoods in East and West Berlin and investigates the interrelation of visual communication instruments in public discourses and planning procedures during the 1980s, a period that prominently featured the new strategy of comprehensive planning. Furthermore, the article highlights the key role of micro-scale changes in the management of urban renewal along both sides of the wall and the emergence of neighbourhood civil engagement and participation.

This article analyses the dynamics of communication, specifically with regard to the significance of visualisations in urban planning between the two competing political regimes of East and West Germany in divided Berlin (1945-1989). The article will demonstrate the ways in which planners on either side of the Iron Curtain were confronted with matters unique to their own political contexts and conditions for public communication, as well as how they faced similar challenges in fields of urban renewal and negotiating public participation. The post-war decades in Berlin were marked by strong planning dynamics: large-scale reconstruction after WWII and the 'showcase character' of political confrontation and competition. In this context, new strategies of communicating urban planning to the public were developed, such as large-scale development plans, public exhibitions and cross-border media campaigns. Paradigmatic shifts during the mid-1970s generated new discourses about urban renewal and historic preservation. The new focus on small-scale planning in vivid and inhabited inner-city neighbourhoods made new forms of communication and public depiction necessary. In the context of social and political change as well as growing mediatisation, planning authorities utilised aspects of urban identity and civic participation to legitimise planning activities. The article traces two small-scale planning projects for neighbourhoods in East and West Berlin and investigates the interrelation of visual communication instruments in public discourses and planning procedures during the 1980s, a period that prominently featured the new strategy of comprehensive planning. Furthermore, the article highlights the key role of micro-scale changes in the management of urban renewal along both sides of the wall and the emergence of neighbourhood civil engagement and participation.

La recherche sur les villes industrielles en Allemagne fédérale et en RDA réunit les centres d'intérêt de l'histoire des villes et de l'urbanisation, de l'histoire du temps présent et de la géographie. La comparaison Est-Ouest du développement des villes industrielles après 1945 offre une perspective générale sur l'histoire croisée des sociétés européennes. À côté d'importantes différences, des parallèles se dessinent entre les deux sociétés allemandes. Toutes deux suivirent le modèle de développement fordiste d'une modernité façonnée au niveau sociopolitique. L'entrée dans la crise de l'emploi en République fédérale eut dès les années 1970 un impact sur le développement urbain, alors qu'en RDA, où les anciennes structures furent conservées pour des raisons politiques, il fallut attendre la réunification de 1990 pour voir l'Est touché, et cette fois de plein fouet, par ces évolutions.

This article discusses the problem-solving capacity of river basin cooperatives in German water policy in historical and current cases. The article builds an institutional theory and refers to the most important Water Framework Directive (WDF) of the European Union in 2000 and works back to the emergence of the first agencies in Germany around 1900. The article shows that these agencies organized a sophisticated institutional compromise between different groups of water users such as mining companies and public authorities. The Prussian state set up a complex legal framework of representation and negotiation of conflicting interests, as the article shows with the cases of the Schwarze Elster and the Erft cooperative. The second part of the paper discusses the problem-solving capacity of these old institutional structures for today's problems such as environmental degradation and urban shrinkage. It states, by analyzing the cases of the Erft and the Rur cooperatives, that the complex mechanisms of financing and decision-making provide protection of water resources and broad agreement amongst the actors involved. The cooperatives are expanding their activities in the context of the WFD and can be regarded to be an appropriate instrument of water policy in the early 21st century.

"This article discusses the problem-solving capacity of river basin cooperatives in German water policy in historical and current cases. The article builds an institutional theory and refers to the most important Water Framework Directive (WDF) of the European Union in 2000 and works back to the emergence of the first agencies in Germany around 1900. The article shows that these agencies organized a sophisticated institutional compromise between different groups of water users such as mining companies and public authorities. The Prussian state set up a complex legal framework of representation and negotiation of conflicting interests, as the article shows with the cases of the Schwarze Elster and the Erft cooperative. The second part of the paper discusses the problem-solving capacity of these old institutional structures for today's problems such as environmental degradation and urban shrinkage. It states, by analyzing the cases of the Erft and the Rur cooperatives, that the complex mechanisms of financing and decision-making provide protection of water resources and broad agreement amongst the actors involved. The cooperatives are expanding their activities in the context of the WFD and can be regarded to be an appropriate instrument of water policy in the early 21st century." (author's abstract)

Der Wohnungs- und Städtebau der Zwischenkriegszeit bildet ein Paradebeispiel für die Intentionen und Grenzen der frühen Rationalisierungsdiskurse als einem Kernelement des Fordismus. Der Erste Weltkrieg verhalf der Bewegung sowohl in Deutschland wie in Frankreich zum Durchbruch. Während in Frankreich die private Schwerindustrie trotz staatlicher Rahmensetzungen den Takt angab, wurden in Deutschland die ersten Pilotprojekte der Rationalisierung nach 1918 von sozialistischen "Bauhütten" und den Kommunen realisiert. Die aus Amerika kommenden Konzepte von Ford, Taylor und Gilbreth wirkten als Katalysatoren auf die in Europa entwickelten Ideen. In der Weltwirtschaftskrise zeigte sich, dass die Rationalisierung im Bauwesen die steigenden Zinsbelastungen am Kapitalmarkt nicht ausgleichen konnte. Der Aufsatz vertritt die These, dass ungeachtet nationaler Varianten in Europa insgesamt die "endogenen" Konzepte und Triebkräfte (wie Erster Weltkrieg, Wohnungsreform und Sozialpolitik) eine deutlich wichtigere Rolle spielten, als es das Schlagwort vom "Fordismus" anzeigt.

Im Aufsatz werden die Ergebnisse aus den drei Teilen des Buches zusammengeführt und daraus weiterführende Schlüsse, insbesondere für die raumwissenschaftliche Forschung, gezogen. Die versammelten Beiträge zeigen, dass das Verhältnis von kollektiven und individuellen Interessen sowie die sich hieraus ergebenden Entscheidungen über die öffentliche oder private Bereitstellung von Gütern und Dienstleistungen im Zentrum breiter gesellschaftlicher Auseinandersetzungen über Gemeinwohl und Gemeinschaftsgüter stehen. Sie berühren in einem demokratischen Gemeinwesen Grundfragen der gesellschaftlichen und staatlichen Verfassung, wie sich jüngst beim Umgang mit der weltweiten Finanzkrise erneut dramatisch gezeigt hat. Es wird argumentiert, dass die bisher disziplinär getrennt geführten Theoriedebatten um öffentliche Güter, Gemeinwohlbelange und Regulierungsformen zusammenzuführen sind, um zu einem besseren, kohärenten Verständnis der Potenziale, Probleme und Überlagerungen in diesem Feld zu kommen. Die Verbindung von sozial- und raumwissenschaftlichen Zugängen zur Analyse gesellschaftlicher Auseinandersetzungen in diesem Feld ist überaus fruchtbar und notwendig, wie das Beispiel historischer und aktueller Entwicklungen in der Wasser- und Kulturlandschaftspolitik Berlin-Brandenburgs demonstriert. (ICF2)

Die Verfasser argumentieren, dass der politische Umgang im Raum Berlin-Brandenburg mit Kulturlandschaften derzeit geprägt ist von einer Reihe von Spannungsfeldern: von Integrations- und Kooperationsdefiziten zwischen den Akteuren der sektoralen Institutionensysteme, von Divergenzen zwischen politisch-administrativen Räumen und kulturlandschaftlichen Handlungsräumen; von hoher Diskursqualität und begrenzter Gestaltungsmacht der Landes- und Regionalplanung; von Anforderung und Realität in der staatlichen Förderung. Hinzu kommt, dass auf der lokalen und regionalen Ebene zahlreiche, oft selbst organisierte Initiativen und Netzwerke Entwicklung von Kulturlandschaften entstanden sind. In diesen kontextbezogenen Governanceformen wird eine wesentliche Ressource zur Herausbildung identitätsbasierter, kulturlandschaftlicher Handlungsräume und zur Mobilisierung kulturlandschaftlicher Entwicklungspotenziale gesehen. (ICF2)