IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A

Abstract

Despite severe bomb damage during World War II destroying 90% of its historic city centre, Nürnberg continues to retain its world-historical status as a late medieval metropolis. Unlike other postwar cities, which undertook comprehensive clearance and redevelopment, creating a tabula rasa even if bomb damage had not, Nürnberg’s conservative postwar planning strategy was guided by traditionalism, seeking to integrate the existing historical fabric into a design for a new “old” town. Such historical consciousness was not only evident in archival documentation (planning guidelines and reconstruction plans), but also in the fact that Nürnberg was one of the few cities to assess its building stock, mapping Denkmäler (buildings/monuments) of historical value prior to the war’s end. The Denkmalwertstufenkarte (1943) mapped three levels of perceived “historic value”, and later informed postwar reconstruction decisions to preserve or demolish. Using a geographical information system (GIS), this paper traces the heritage journeys of the 1940s Denkmäler. It applies an urban analytics approach to combine prewar with present-day Denkmäler, visualizing, comparing and capturing the heritage of the city at two different snapshots in time. Secondly, the fate of the prewar Denkmäler is examined, together with ‘new’ heritage to emerge since. The paper provides: 1) a richer understanding of the postwar reconstruction of Nürnberg from a heritage perspective and 2) an assessment of the perception of urban heritage during the 1940s and today. Offering insights into the conservation of heritage during times of war, this research will interest planners/policymakers working in cities where heritage is under threat.