The Sixteen Principles of Urban Design

Die Sechzehn Grundsätze des Städtebaus, or The Sixteen Principles of Urban Design, were from 1950 until 1955 the primary model for urban planning in the GDR.

Decided by the Government of the German Democratic Republic on 27 July 1950:

The urban planning and architectural design of our cities, which shall influence the construction of all of Germany, must express the social order of the German Democratic Republic, as well as the progressive traditions and great goals of our German people. They shall adhere to the following principles:

By September 7, 1950, one day after the adoption of a national building law, the demolition of the heavily damaged Berlin City Palace began. The plan was to build a 90-meter wide stretch of road from the Frankfurter Straße via Alexanderplatz, Königstraße (now Rathausstraße) and the street Unter den Linden to the Brandenburg Gate. The "central axis" was to create a new representation Magistrale arise between the Brandenburg Gate and Alexanderplatz, the center of the monumental height dominant - should be in place of the castle, the central government building - as a "city crown" the Marx-Engels-Platz. In 1951, Stalinallee emerged as the first Socialist avenue in the GDR. The first stages of construction was from 1952 to 1958, designed by Hermann Henselmann, architect of Hochhaus an der Weberwiese. When the work at Frankfurter Tor was completed in 1960, the historicist style of the avenue was already outdated and perceived almost bashfully. Other major projects were in Dresden at the Altmarkt, in Leipzig on Roßplatz and at the Long Street realized in . From 1955 a new phase of urban development in the GDR took place after the Soviet Union adopted new directives for 1954 architecture, which called for greater standardization and the waiving of expensive ornamentation. The second phase of Stalinallee-between Strausberger Platz and Alexander Platz-was therefore built in an industrial aesthetic.

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