The emergence of the car-oriented city: Entanglements and transfer agents in West-Berlin, East-Berlin and Lyon, 1945–75

Abstract

It is well known how the planning model of a “car-oriented city” was common among Western experts in the post-Second World War period, but here we claim this approach was common in both sides of divided Berlin. Investigating East- and West-Berlin’s reconstruction, here we analyse the relationship between the transnational sphere of circulation and its local realisations. Focusing on the leading figures of urban planning in West- and East-Berlin (who acted as “transfer agents”, participating in the transnational discourse) let us to better frame Berlin’s urban history in the 1960s and 1970s. The example of Lyon as France’s most “car-friendly city” is included in the analysis, so to transcend traditional perspectives of Cold War-antagonism, as well as to show the diverse and multilateral ways of exchange. Finally, the findings of the article will put the established periodisation of the “car-oriented city” in question.