Despite war being such a major catalyst for urban change, postwar planning and reconstruction still remains an important field for further investigation. The existing literature has investigated this topic through several lens’: architecture, urban archaeology, heritage, urban design, city planning, critical cartography, and social geography. Existing accounts have documented the number/type of bomb attacks on selected cities (e.g. Hohn, 1991; 1993) and the subsequent damage caused (e.g. Durth and Gutschow, 1993; Diefendorf, 1993), examined reconstruction efforts, alternative planning visions and designs and to an extent, their legacies (Pendlebury et al. 2015; Alvanides and Ludwig, 2023), and more recently shifted the focus to the maps of war themselves, critically delineating and “reading” their production, purpose, and the information they represent and communicate (e.g. Corner, 2011; Oswalt, 2019; Enss & Knauer, 2022). Few studies, however, have attempted to quantitatively analyse the impact of war on city transformation via the application of digital humanities methods. Our paper addresses this research gap. It contributes to and expands on the existing body of knowledge, advancing understanding of post-war transformation and the way in which such transformation can be explored through the application of various digital humanities methods.

This presentation showcases the findings of the BMBF-funded project, 'Sozialkartographie', demonstrating the multiple data science methods employed, using a Geographical Information System (GIS), to explore specific forms of postwar urban and social transformation in Nuremberg, Cologne and Essen (Germany). Research questions included: How can the use of GIS inform new questions and advance understanding of postwar transformation? To what extent has the level of destruction in postwar cities influenced the subsequent land use mix, urban morphology, spatial concentration of heritage and later socioeconomic profile of the cities explored? The case study cities chosen are ideal examples for the development and testing of such exploratory research methods, as shall be summarised below.

With a population of around 520,000 individuals, Nuremberg is the second‐largest city in Bavaria and one of the 15 largest cities in Germany. Nuremberg suffered heavy bombing during the Second World War with the main destruction taking place on January 2, 1945. In 1939, according to the official census, there were 125,074 normal dwellings in Nuremberg and a population of 423,838 inhabitants. In May 1945 only 63,753 dwellings were left (52.5% of the pre‐war housing stock). Of these, 7,238 were completely uninhabitable because of severe damage. Only 14,517 had been spared from the destruction of the war (Durth & Gutschow, 1993). The remaining dwellings were either severely, moderately, or slightly damaged.

While several key textbooks provide a detailed account of the destruction of German cities during the Second World War (Diefendorf 1993; Durth & Gutschow 1993; Hohn 1991; Beseler & Gutschow 2000), very few authors have focused specifically on the industrial city of Essen, exploring its architecture (Boucsein 2010) or the historical role of the Krupp steel works (Heistermann 2004). Essen was one of 10 cities in the new Federal Republic of Germany with the largest amount of rubble during the Second World War (almost 15 million cubic metres), in fifth place behind Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Dortmund (Diefendorf 1993: 15). Essen suffered severe bomb damage, primarily because it was a target of Allied strategic (precision) bombing. This war strategy led to accurate attacks on carefully chosen industrial targets, with the goal to destroy the enemy’s military capacity. Following this policy, the British Royal Air Force (RAF) reportedly dropped 36,429 tons of bombs on Essen during the war. March 5, 1943, saw the first major bombing raid on Essen and as part of the campaign known as the ‘Battle of the Ruhr’ Essen was a repeated target, experiencing a total of 272 air raids (Beseler & Gutschow 2000: 468).

As a target of 262 Allied air raids since the spring of 1940, Cologne, Germany, is reported to have suffered 70 per cent destruction during the Second World War (Wiktorin, 2005). This figure, however, included great differences between the city’s districts, with the southern part of the old town suffering an estimated 93 per cent destruction, the northern part an estimated 87 per cent, while districts further out were comparatively little destroyed.

Building on existing post-war planning research, we sought to develop alternative methods to improve understanding of various forms of city transformation following the war. By using historic damage maps as a foundation, we applied urban analytic approaches to investigate the varying impact of war on the cities studied. To do so, we brought together under-researched archival material (damage maps and documentation), landuse maps, heritage maps and socioeconomic data sets into a Geographical Information System (GIS). Converting urban features depicted in historic maps into geospatial data we mapped the spatial distribution of bomb damage at the district level, allocating a quantifiable bomb damage index (BDI) score to each district. Secondly, we assessed the BDI alongside other spatial data to investigate the relationship between the level of bomb destruction and the transformation of the cities as observed today.

We considered these findings in relation to the post-war reconstruction of the cities concerned and the subsequent planning decisions implemented across them. In doing so, we provide: 1) a digital representation of the level and spatial distribution of bomb damage across the cities, and 2) an assessment of the relationship between bombed areas and their present-day urban form (morphological change as observed through changes in block typologies), landuse, heritage profile and socioeconomic status. Together, this innovative research offers insights into the geographies of the bombed cities' pasts, and provides a richer understanding of the cities' destruction, reconstruction, and postwar legacies. The results are of interest to planners/policymakers seeking to improve future cities, as well as to researchers seeking to apply alternative, digital humanities methodologies to the study of historic maps.