James Hobrecht’s deve­lo­p­ment plan for Berlin’s expan­sion from 1862 is a recur­ring (often nega­tive) refe­rence in plan­ning history and the basis on which the inner city was created and is based upon until today. The inter­di­sci­pli­nary rese­arch project aimed at illu­mi­na­ting the ideas behind and the real history of the plan(s) in an inte­grated way. The focus was on:

1. the plan’s logic as an urban growth frame­work (Chair for Urban Design & Urban Deve­lo­p­ment),

2. the deve­lo­p­ment of urban space with regard to the robust­ness of the growth frame­work (Chair for Urban Trans­for­ma­tion), and

3. the urban space as a work of archi­tec­ture and its cultural, histo­rical and artistic value (Chair for Urban Heri­tage).

Attri­bu­tions of value, spatial deve­lo­p­ment and plan state­ments were combined in the term „Hobrech­tian Berlin“ in order to do justice to the multi­di­men­sio­na­lity of the object of inves­ti­ga­tion. At the same time, this comple­xity was reflected in the combi­na­tion of urban-morpho­lo­gical analyzes with inves­ti­ga­tions into mission state­ments, social values, and compa­rable 19th-century Euro­pean urban plan­ning. Thus, local insights into the urban struc­ture of Berlin were set into the Euro­pean context of the time, histo­rical and metho­do­lo­gical know­ledge gained and Hobrecht’s contri­bu­tion to urban plan­ning reeva­luated. In addi­tion, the plan was examined as a control and regu­la­tion instru­ment under changed condi­tions of the 19th Century. The revi­si­ting of the under­lying design decis­ions deepened the under­stan­ding of the deve­lo­p­ment of urban plan­ning disci­pline in a signi­fi­cant way: By looking at the built city to this day, it is possible to view the history of ideas and real history over a long period of time. In addi­tion, a contri­bu­tion was made to current debates about the Euro­pean city and its common heri­tage, and critical reflec­tion was encouraged.

K LAB (or the Karto­gra­phie­ver­bund as prede­cessor insti­tu­tion) was involved in carto­gra­phic work on the rese­arch project. Based on exis­ting Berlin geodata-invent­ories and the ISR’s map coll­ec­tion, new infor­ma­tion levels of the city – espe­ci­ally histo­rical maps – were digi­tized and inte­grated into a geogra­phic infor­ma­tion system and dife­rent carto­gra­phic output (analog and digital) created. The maps and visua­liza­tions were included in various publications.