The Development of Modern Urban Planning: The Case of Strasbourg, 1871-1918

Abstract

Strasbourg, this article argues, played a seminal role in the development of urban planning. The city’s transformation in the late nineteenth century was one of the earliest, largest, and most expensive planned urban extensions in modern Germany. In the process, Strasbourg also came to play a central role in the development of urban planning into an established area of technical expertise, an academic discipline, and an area of professional practice. Initially conceived under the aegis of the empire’s military command, the transformation of Strasbourg quickly involved local politicians, landowners, and independent experts, accelerating the development of urban planning into a practice dominated by what Camillo Sitte described as “technicians and specialists.” The reception of Strasbourg impacted the salient debates in urban planning from the 1870s to the early twentieth century.