Between Copying and Critical Reconstruction: The Recent Case of German Historical Centers

In the early post-war years the protagonists involved, from a theoretical and practical point of view, in the reconstruction of the historic centers of European cities were forced to confront the principles advocated by the Modern Movement, both in the architectural and urban spheres. These principles derived from the proposals of the 1920s and 1930s by the most radical wing of the Modern Movement and referred to a different idea of the city from those inherited at the end of the nineteenth century. However, the immediate question of reconstructing historical centers more or less obliterated by wartime devastation raises different positions. The Reconstructionist Line, inaugurated in Berlin in the 90s, has more recently seen its continuation in the context of other German cities, united by the search for an identity lost over time due to arbitrary urban choices on the historical layout. Despite the common reconstructive approach, however, in the various interventions carried out since the new millennium in cities such as Frankfurt am Main, Potsdam and Lübeck, different responses emerge from those experienced in Berlin, which more directly confront the historical typologies once existing there.