Archive: The Capital City of Berlin - Documentation

Stipulations of the planning codes

The goals laid down in the State Capital Agreement had to be achieved quickly, which meant that a legal instrument was necessary, with which the complicated planning and construction processes could be safely regulated. To this end an ordinance which paved the way for the future of the state capital was resolved by the Senate and published on the 17 June 1993. It carried the long title, literally translated "Ordinance for the Formal Determination of the Urban Development Area and the Associated Adaptation Areas Required for Development Measure for the Capital City of Berlin - Parliamentary and Government Quarter". The German Bundestag budget committee agreed to the costs in February 1994 and in the following May the Administrative Agreement between the Federation and Berlin was signed.

The determining factor in the selection of this particular form of legal instrument was being able to push through the interests of the Federation in settling in the city centre of Berlin. The instrument was not used where Federal interests were not relevant. It was for this reason that the development area was divided into two, as the area in-between - around Friedrichstraße - was seen as being a responsibility of the city.

The possibilities for intervention by public authorities

The development measure is the practical implementation of the Capital Resolution. Its goals according to building law, must lie in the public interest. The development measure must be limited to a particular area, in order to restrict the possibilities the authorities have for intervention to that which is necessary. For in fact these measure allow the intervention in the land and property markets - and price restriction - and, if necessary, compulsory purchase - the "sharpest sword of national building law".

In addition, the preparatory work by the city authorities - in the technical and social infrastructure - lie in one hand. This ensures that substantial changes then require special authorisation, for example:

• the erection, modification or change of use of buildings and structures;
• the removal of buildings and structures;
• significant value-increasing changes to land, buildings or structures;
• the division of land plots;
• agreements, through which a relationship under the law of obligations which lasts more than one year is either started or extended;
• the sale of a plot of land or the ordering and selling of a heritable building right.

Friedrichswerder
Individual townhouses are constructed on newly created narrow properties

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