Zum Wiederaufbau in Europa ist gerade ein neuer Sammelband – hrsg. von Georg Wagner-Kyora – erschienen. Darin findet sich u.a. ein Aufsatz zum Wiederaufbau Altonas mit einer der ersten Fußgängerzonen Deutschlands, der Neuen Großen Bergstraße.

Sylvia Necker: Zwischen Abriss, Neuplanung und Rekonstruktion. Neu-Altona als Teil des Hamburger Wiederaufbaus 1950-1979, in: Georg Wagner-Kyora (Hrsg.): Wiederaufbau europäischer Städte / Rebuilding European Cities. Rekonstruktionen, die Moderne und die lokale Identitätspolitik seit 1945 / Reconstructions, Modernity and Local Politics of Identity Construction since 1945 (Beiträge zur Stadtgeschichte und Urbanisierungsforschung 15), Stuttgart 2013, 423–443.

Abstract zum Aufsatz: Hip in the fifties, forgotten in the eighties and today a matter of political conflicts: this could be a short description of the changing perspectives on “Neu-Altona”, a planning zone in the West of Hamburg. After World War II, urban planners began the reconstruction of Hamburg with a kind of radical attitude. They believed in the creation of the new on the basis of the destruction of the old. This European phenomenon can also be ob-served in the cases of, for example, Rotterdam and London. The shopping street “Neue Grosse Bergstrasse”, as a main street in “Neu-Altona”, was built and high-ly celebrated by urban planners and residents alike. It was one of the first shop-ping streets in West Germany, planned as a car-free zone and paradise for house-wives in the 1950s. In light of the appreciation of the new street in Hamburg-Altona in its early years, a new shopping centre called “Frappant” was planned in 1968.
Even if the “Frappant” did not really qualify as Brutalist architecture, it was soon thereafter discussed as such. Residents complained, on television and in the local papers, that the “Grosse Bergstrasse” and the quarter “Neu-Altona” had become dirty and been taken over by homeless people. Residents no longer felt secure on their own streets. Never-theless, since the 1980s, there have been several attempts to improve the situation of the whole neighbourhood. In the last ten years, the creative class has been mo-tivated to push the appreciation of “Neu-Altona”. In 2014, another player will follow in the development of “Neu-Altona”. The “Frappant” was demolished and now IKEA will open a new store on “Grosse Bergstrasse”. All along: Altona be-tween destruction and reconstruction.