VIRTUAL Barcelona

Abstract

During World War II, hundreds of European cities were bombed. People lost their lives, their homes and their cultural heritage were destroyed. In preparation for post-war reconstruction, war damage was mapped alongside valuable historic buildings, which were recorded as ‘heritage assets’. We examine damage maps of historic buildings or districts in cities in Germany and Austria. We ask how cartography and planning were linked to heritage management in war-torn cities. As a result, we propose a theoretical framework of the entangled relationship between heritage making, heritage mapping, urban planning and urban conservation. Critical cartographic history has described maps as instruments that helped to create new realities and establish power. The mapping of valuable historic buildings of entire city districts was a variation of a heritage inventory. Maps, as paper databases, combined information on the stability of buildings with historical assessment. Spatial data was used by architects to help manage and rebuild after a catastrophic event. Post-war economic needs as well as the conservation and preservation of parts of the historic fabric were served by the structural information contained in the maps. Some parts of historic centres survived the war only as documentary maps and physically in foundation walls. These parts were then the subject of a variety of rebuilding projects. Although war damage and heritage maps from the 1940s are not digital tools, they can be studied as databases that link pre-war and post-war realities. As historical documents, they form a memory of the city and document the heritage interests of the 1940s and 50s that shaped post-war cities.