“Thematic city maps from the second third of the 20th century on war, zoning, construction planning and urban heritage” PI: Dr. Carmen M. Enss, Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg.

Title for GESIS WP: “City-maps providing historical geographical context for social science research”

Thematic maps from wartime and post-war Europe are a neglected source of contextual geographical data. In addition to bomb damage, various aspects of the city, in particular functional or idealistic meanings of its areas were reassessed, documented and, in some cases, shown in maps for the first time during and after the war. Although more maps are now being digitised and made available online, the overwhelming majority of historical thematic maps for European cities have so far neither been located in the archives themselves nor compared with each other. The digital collection, interdisciplinary research, informatics and geoinformatics processing and complete editing of such documents for selected cities in Central Europe is therefore the subject of the collaborative research applied for here. A comparative analysis of these maps will pursue the following objectives in detail:

1. Understanding and mapping processes of reconstruction for example cities

2. Researching the methodology of thematic mapping and infographics

3. Informatics Development for Questioning Heterogeneous Data and Metadata



The main research question to be addressed on behalf of GESIS is to what extent such historical geographical data can be offer contextual information for social surveys through geographical matching. A secondary research question is related to Dr. Ludwig’s research interests as city planner in explaining the current state of cities in Germany in relation to pre- and post-war planning trends.-