Institute for Space Research

The Institute for Spatial Research (1949–1973) was founded in the summer of 1949 as one of the forerunners of the scientific field of today's Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR). Bonn- Bad Godesberg was planned as the location of the institute . The first chairman and co-initiator of the Institute for Spatial Research was the Essen politician and later Vice Chancellor Franz Blücher (FDP). The first head of the institute (1949–1951) was the Münster lawyer and former employee of the Reich Office for Spatial Planning , Erwin Muermann . The second head (1951–1969) of the institute was the former Leipzig economist and head of the Leipzig university study group for spatial research , Erich Dittrich .

From 1950 the IfR was under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of the Interior . In 1959, the IfR and the Federal Office for Regional Studies worked together within the framework of the "Federal Office for Regional Studies and Spatial Research" (BFLR), but remained de facto independent. In 1967 the institute was renamed "Institute for Spatial Planning". In 1973 the institute was finally integrated into the Federal Research Institute for Regional Studies and Regional Planning .

Founding years - spatial research should serve the integration of refugees

The spatial planning law was transferred to the individual (federal) states after World War II. Individual state planning authorities received their own planning offices.

The Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning (ARL) in Hanover existed since 1946 as the legal successor to the National Socialist Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für Raumforschung (RAG) . She mainly acted in decentralized working groups. After the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, however, a central research institute for spatial research was also created with a location in Bonn- Bad Godesberg : the Institute for spatial research (IfR), which emerged from the affiliation of the RAG to the Statistical Office of the Bizone . As a result of a financial scandal, the IfR was assigned to the Federal Ministry of the Interior in autumn 1950 . ARL and IfR had a competitive relationship, especially at the beginning. In the second half of 1950, a division of tasks between IfR and ARL was agreed. The permanent funding of the ARL within the framework of the Königstein State Agreement further relaxed the relationship with the IfR. Today the Federal Institute for Building, Urban and Spatial Research (BBSR) describes the founding history of the previous Institute for Spatial Research, based on the creation of the Federal Research Institute for Regional Studies and Spatial Planning in the 1970s, as follows:

"1.1.1973: The Federal Research Institute for Regional Studies and Regional Planning is founded. It arises from the merger of the Institute for Regional Studies with the Institute for Spatial Research. Its predecessor institutions were founded in 1935 (Reichsstelle für Raumforschung) and 1940 (Department for Regional Studies) as instruments of the National Socialist ' people without space ' ideology. After the forced dissolution in 1945, the two institutions were re-established at the end of the 1940s. They were used by the Allies for regional studies and by the young Federal Republic as a control instrument for the integration of refugees. "

The IfR “was founded in the administration of the United Economic Area under the direction of Erwin Muermann.” The institute emerged from an initiative taken in 1948 by the politician Franz Blücher as part of his work in the Frankfurt Economic Council. Erich Dittrich wrote:

"Furthermore, the efforts of the then MP Blücher in the Economic Council of the United Economic Area succeeded in promoting spatial research and establishing the Institute for spatial research."

Franz Blücher sat on the Economic Council of the Bizone as a representative of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Senior Director Hermann Pünder (also Economic Councilor of the Bizone ) signed the first statutes of the Institute for Spatial Research in the summer of 1949. The board of trustees of the institute elected Franz Blücher as the institute's first chairman. Erich Dittrich, the second head of the institute, assessed those early years retrospectively:

“At the beginning of the activity of the Institute for Spatial Research stood its contributions to population balance and refugee resettlement. At the beginning of the 1950s, there was a very urgent need for these investigations. Later on, the institute mainly addressed questions of integration in its work, insofar as it concerned the refugee problem . "

Research tasks of the institute: continuity and change

The institute not only opened up spatial research to refugee research , but also to social science issues. Social-technological goals that can be found in Nazi spatial research could hardly be implemented in the democratic and federal state of the Federal Republic of Germany. The idea of 'spatial planning' seemed generally burdened by National Socialism. Even for this reason, high-ranking politicians such as Ludwig Erhard initially opposed any spatial planning and planning.

It was also clear to the IfR's spatial researchers, who were burdened by activities during National Socialism, that they could not continue uninterruptedly with Nazi traditions in spatial research. But the desired proximity of the IfR to economists, sociologists and geographers who were already active in the Nazi era was just as obvious. Has spatial research succeeded in making a fresh start as a social science ? How should this new beginning look like; where were corrections necessary? Not only the controversial Erwin Muermann, but also Erich Dittrich tied in parts with the previous spatial research and took previously involved NS actors with him in the gradual establishment of a democratic spatial research:

“In the early days of spatial planning after the war, the focus was on the reconstruction of the destroyed cities and infrastructure, the construction of apartments and workplaces, initial funding for the border areas and the demarcation of emergency areas and urban agglomerations. (...) In fact, after the war, many of the projects started by the Reich Office for Spatial Planning and the Reich Working Group for Spatial Research , such as the 'District Map Investigations', were seamlessly continued. In the organizational decree of 1951, the competencies and tasks of democratic spatial research were laid down. It says that the institute has the task of '(...) to promote scientific knowledge in the field of spatial research in word, writing and image independently and in cooperation with similar institutions at home and abroad, and to promote it for spatial planning and spatial planning to make usable and to lay the foundations for all questions of spatial research for the federal government. This task is to be solved in close cooperation with the federal states ... '"

At the beginning of the 1950s, the IfR worked with the terms active and passive spaces , building bridges to the investigation of the "emergency areas" that had already been defined in the 1930s. With regard to the development of the institute including the 1960s, the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning comes to the following conclusion:

"In retrospect it can be confirmed that many of the research results painted a realistic picture of the future. For example, the spatial researchers forecast stagnation and, in some cases, a decline in the number of industrial jobs due to progressive rationalization, and recommend that the problem be countered by increasing the number of industries . The recession of 1966 / 67 and the finding that the regional disparities did not decrease, but increased, led to a reorientation of the spatial planning policy towards the growth target and thus a rediscovery of the agglomeration advantages : The previous aim of active redevelopment of rural areas in need of development was dropped in favor of 'decentralized densification '. "

Institute for Spatial Research (structure and staff around 1953)

organizational unit:	manned by:
Chair : (1949–1951)	Franz Blücher
Head of the institute: (1949–1951)	Erwin Muermann
Head of the institute: (1951–1969)	Erich Dittrich
Head of the institute: (1970–1973)	Georg Müller
Office	8 employees
Branch office Berlin	Karl C. Thalheim
Department I: Subject: Spatial Research	Erich Dittrich (1959–1963: Gerhard Isbary )
Unit 1: Statistics and Policy Issues	Georg Müller ("Müller I")
Unit 2: Bibliography and Documentation	Eduard Beyer
Unit 3: Refugee issues, individual economic problems	Heribert Müller ("Müller II")
Unit 4: Abroad	Irmgard Köppe
Unit 5: Archives and Library	Archivist Petsch
Department II subject area: regional planning, regional planning and mapping	Higher government councilor for reuse Hanns Werner
Department III Subject: Editing of the Institute's publications	Eduard Beyer
Section 1: Editor “RuR”, “Mitteilungen” u. a.	Arnold Hillen-Ziegfeld resp. Eduard Beyer (Successor: Ernst Wolfgang Buchholz ) Employee: Ms. Merbeck
Unit 2: Editing of the "Informations" u. a.	Rudolf Koch-Erpach (successor: Gerhard Isbary ) Employee: Ms. Merbeck

Source : Institute's business allocation plan from February 1953

Other clerks, cartographers and typists may have been assigned to the individual presentations. In the early 1950s, the institute's library contained around 500 periodicals, including numerous foreign journals. The library was modeled on the library of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy .

The following are also associated with the Institute for Spatial Research:

the sociologist Erika Fischer (formerly employed at the Berlin headquarters of the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für Raumforschung, assistant to Franz Blücher),

the former "chairman" of the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für Raumforschung (RAG), Konrad Meyer (temporarily member of the scientific council of the IfR);

the former head of department (statistics) of the Reich Office for Spatial Planning, Gerhard Isenberg (including a member of the Refugee Committee of the IfR)

the sociologist Elisabeth Pfeil (she worked on research assignments for the IfR).

the sociologist Hans Freyer (temporarily member of the scientific council of the IfR)

the sociologist Karl Heinz Pfeffer (member of the Refugee Committee of the IfR)

the sociologist and political advisor Ludwig Neundörfer (he cooperated with the IfR in the course of the population report)

the architect Hans Bernhard Reichow (temporarily member of the scientific council of the IfR)

the architect and regional planner Stephan Prager (temporarily member of the scientific council of the IfR, survivor of the Holocaust)

the population scientist Werner Essen (worked for the IfR under Erwin Muermann)

the economic historian Bruno Kuske (promoter of spatial research in NRW and temporarily member of the scientific council of the IfR)

the economist and transport scientist Andreas Predöhl (temporarily member of the scientific council of the IfR)

the geographer Martin Schwind (1906-1991) (he led the negotiating delegation of the spatial researchers in the Economic Council of the Bizone)

the geographer Fritz Klute (temporarily member of the scientific council of the IfR)

Marieluise ten Brink (employee of Georg Müller)

Heinz A. Finke (worked for the IfR in the area of housing needs assessment)

the population scientist Kurt Horstmann (worked together with the geographer Werner Nellner for the IfR)
State Secretary MdB Hans-Joachim von Merkatz (beneficiary in the IfR scandal)

The budget made available to the Institute for Spatial Research from federal funds amounted to 517,000 DM in the 1951/52 financial year.

As early as 1949, the IfR's rules of procedure provided for an eight-person “scientific council”. The council should advise the management of the institute and develop the research program. The research program was decided annually by the scientific council together with the institute management and communicated to individual federal ministries.

IfR publications (selection)

Journal of Space Research . Official organ of the Institute for Spatial Research (only published 1st year 1950), Bielefeld: Eilers Verlag, included in the journal " Raumforschung und Raumordnung ", 1936–2018.
" Annual report ", Bad Godesberg 1949–1953.
" Messages " from the Institute for Spatial Research (continued as " Research on Spatial Development " 1975–1997), Bad Godesberg 1950–1974.
" Information ", IfR, Bad Godesberg 1950–1973. (and special issues of this series 1952–1967); since 1974 in the Federal Research Center for Regional Studies and Regional Planning: Information on spatial development .
" Lectures " IfR, Bad Godesberg 1951–1961.
IfR (Ed.): The district folder of the Institute for Spatial Research . Statistical overviews. Bad Godesberg 1950–1960.

Arnold Hillen-Ziegfeld (responsible for the content), IfR (Hrsg.): The German refugee problem . Special issue of the magazine for spatial research. IfR, Bielefeld: Eilers 1950.
IfR (Hrsg.): Order and planning in the Ruhr area . Facts and tasks . Dortmund: Ardey-Verlag 1951.
IfR (Hrsg.): The resettlement of expellees in the Federal Republic of Germany . Expert opinion of the Institute for Spatial Research in conjunction with the Sociographical Institute at the University of Frankfurt / M. Bad Godesberg: IfR 1951.
IfR (Ed.): On the question of regional economic policy . Memorandum. Bad Godesberg 1954
IfR (Hrsg.): Expert opinion on a key to the distribution of immigrants and repatriates to the states of the Federal Republic of Germany . Bad Godesberg: IfR 1958.
IfR (Hrsg.): District numbers for spatial planning (IfR special issue). Bad Godesberg 1964–1971.
(together with the Federal Ministry for Housing and Urban Development) materials for state planning , Bad Godesberg 1955–1959.

literature

Franz Blücher: task and goal . In: Zeitschrift für Raumforschung. Official organ of the Institute for Spatial Research 1 (1950), pp. 1–2.
Hansjörg Gutberger: Founding phase and restart of the Institute for Spatial Research (1949 - 1951) . In: Wendelin Strubelt / Detlev Briesen (eds.). Spatial planning after 1945. Continuities and new beginnings in the Federal Republic of Germany . Frankfurt / M. / New York: Campus-Verlag 2015, pp. 93–126, ISBN 978-3-593-50306-6 .

Hansjörg Gutberger: spatial development, population and social integration. Research for spatial planning and spatial planning policy 1930–1960. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-15129-4 .

Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (Ed.): Chronicle of construction and space. History and prehistory of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning . Tübingen, Berlin: Wasmuth Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-8030-0667-7 .

Georg Müller: Institute for Regional Planning . In: Concise dictionary of spatial research and spatial planning. Hanover: Jänecke 1970., 2nd edition.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ As recently as the 1940s, the term 'spatial planning' was dispensed with in order to avoid any echoes of Nazi spatial planning.
↑ Source: http://www.bbsr.bund.de/BBSR/DE/Bundesinstitut/Geschichte/geschichte_node.html
^ Andreas Kübler, Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning: Chronicle of construction and space. History and prehistory of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning. Ed .: Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8030-0667-7 , p. 317 .
↑ Hansjörg Gutberger: start-up phase and restart the Institute for Space Research (1949 - 1951) . In: Wendelin Strubelt / Detlev Briesen (eds.). Spatial planning after 1945. Continuities and new beginnings in the Federal Republic of Germany . Frankfurt / M. / New York: Campus-Verlag 2015, pp. 93–126.
↑ Erich Dittrich: Basic lines of the development of spatial research in Germany . In: Otto Stammer , Karl C. Thalheim (Hrsg.): Festgabe for Friedrich Bülow on the 70th birthday. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1960, p. 93.
^ Foreword by Erich Dittrich in Gerd Gruda: The integration of expellees as a process of professional differentiation with the basic attitude of positive resignation . Bad Godesberg: Federal Institute for Regional Studies and Spatial Research 1961, p. I (communications from the Institute for Spatial Research. 47).
^ Andreas Kübler, Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (ed.): Chronicle of construction and space. History and prehistory of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning . Tübingen, Berlin: Wasmuth Verlag 2007, p. 319.
^ Andreas Kübler, Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (ed.): Chronicle of construction and space. History and prehistory of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning . Tübingen, Berlin: Wasmuth Verlag 2007, p. 322.
↑ Before 1945 Georg Müller had worked for a National Socialist university study group for spatial research . He also worked in the framework of the Silesian state planning community.
↑ In October 1955 Hanns Werner was elected regional planner of the State Planning Association of Westphalia .
↑ Arnold Hillen-Ziegfeld was active in the Nazi state in the context of " Westforschung " (see Lemma Westraum ) and " Ostforschung " (see Lemma " Drang nach Osten "). For Hillen-Ziegfeld see also: Petra Svatek: "Southeastern Europe as a research area". Vienna spatial research and "living space policy" . In: S. Flachowsky, R. Hachtmann, F. Schmaltz: Resource mobilization. Göttingen 2016, p. 89.
↑ from: Hansjörg Gutberger: Spatial Development, Population and Social Integration. Research for spatial planning and spatial planning policy 1930–1960. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2017, pp. 158-161, ISBN 978-3-658-15129-4 .
^ Promotion of spatial research , from: Bonner General-Anzeiger of November 28, 1951.

[1] As recently as the 1940s, the term 'spatial planning' was dispensed with in order to avoid any echoes of Nazi spatial planning.

[2] Source: http://www.bbsr.bund.de/BBSR/DE/Bundesinstitut/Geschichte/geschichte_node.html

[3] Andreas Kübler, Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning: Chronicle of construction and space. History and prehistory of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning. Ed .: Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8030-0667-7 , p. 317 .

[4] Hansjörg Gutberger: start-up phase and restart the Institute for Space Research (1949 - 1951) . In: Wendelin Strubelt / Detlev Briesen (eds.). Spatial planning after 1945. Continuities and new beginnings in the Federal Republic of Germany . Frankfurt / M. / New York: Campus-Verlag 2015, pp. 93–126.

[5] Erich Dittrich: Basic lines of the development of spatial research in Germany . In: Otto Stammer , Karl C. Thalheim (Hrsg.): Festgabe for Friedrich Bülow on the 70th birthday. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1960, p. 93.

[6] Foreword by Erich Dittrich in Gerd Gruda: The integration of expellees as a process of professional differentiation with the basic attitude of positive resignation . Bad Godesberg: Federal Institute for Regional Studies and Spatial Research 1961, p. I (communications from the Institute for Spatial Research. 47).

[7] Andreas Kübler, Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (ed.): Chronicle of construction and space. History and prehistory of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning . Tübingen, Berlin: Wasmuth Verlag 2007, p. 319.

[8] Andreas Kübler, Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (ed.): Chronicle of construction and space. History and prehistory of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning . Tübingen, Berlin: Wasmuth Verlag 2007, p. 322.

[9] Before 1945 Georg Müller had worked for a National Socialist university study group for spatial research . He also worked in the framework of the Silesian state planning community.

[10] In October 1955 Hanns Werner was elected regional planner of the State Planning Association of Westphalia .

[11] Arnold Hillen-Ziegfeld was active in the Nazi state in the context of " Westforschung " (see Lemma Westraum ) and " Ostforschung " (see Lemma " Drang nach Osten "). For Hillen-Ziegfeld see also: Petra Svatek: "Southeastern Europe as a research area". Vienna spatial research and "living space policy" . In: S. Flachowsky, R. Hachtmann, F. Schmaltz: Resource mobilization. Göttingen 2016, p. 89.

[12] rom: Hansjörg Gutberger: Spatial Development, Population and Social Integration. Research for spatial planning and spatial planning policy 1930–1960. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2017, pp. 158-161, ISBN 978-3-658-15129-4 .

[13] Promotion of spatial research , from: Bonner General-Anzeiger of November 28, 1951.