4201 - City according to plan

Since the city was founded, many stakeholders have participated in shaping the design of Berlin. In today’s Mitte district, city planning visions of kings and electors, and later of elected governments are next to those devised by industrialists, landowners, architects and engineers.

In Berlin-Wedding, the Prussian King Frederick II authorized the settlement of non-local farmers to cultivate the marshland. Foreign languages mixed with the language originally spoken in Berlin and a first multicultural space developed. At the same time, aristocracy and bourgeoisie visited the Friedrichs-Gesundbrunnen spa built by the court apothecary Wilhelm Behm.

So, who made this city during which period of time? Who received incentives to settle in the area of today’s Mitte district? And whose decisions about design and construction were followed by the social groups in the city, and who were those who did not succeed? Quite a few designs from the past still define the urban space we move in nowadays.