Engines of ideology: Urban renewal in Rostock, Germany, 1990--2000

This dissertation is an ethnography of urban renewal and historic preservation, within the context of ten years post-socialism, in the Hanseatic City of Rostock, a small city on the Baltic coast of Germany. It is thematic in scope. It encompasses various themes such as historic preservation and gentrification; community participation and civil society; the role of planning vs. organic or vernacular development, and what conclusions can be drawn concerning the future for Baltic cities. I describe the challenges that face Rostock as it transforms its environment after decades of neglect. This research covers the political geography and economy of Rostock in brief, as well as demographics, crime, right-extremism, alcoholism, and homelessness and their role in the current climate of Rostock.; One focus is on identifying the role that history plays in the construction of civic identity. Following Brian Ladd, I look at how renewal projects manage the National Socialist and Communist periods within the context of general urban renewal and historic preservation. By focusing on earlier periods, like the Industrial Age, and the Medieval Hanseatic florescence, I assert that residents of Rostock can evade confrontation with their more recent past.; Different neighborhoods provide examples of the myriad difficulties faced by cities in the post-socialist Baltic countries as they struggle with issues of transition. One chapter examines a renewal project in the Altstadt and finds that the lack of institutional integration, common values among participants, and a shared political language contributed to its ultimate failure to implement its originally stated goals. I propose that business models of the West, in particular a "corporate worldview," are one aspect hampering the implementation of community participation projects.; I suggest that we view what happened to the cities of the east as a form of "tragedy of the commons," where the state mismanaged resources like infrastructure, architecture, and the image of the city, which should have been open to all members of the society. I also use Richard Dent's processual model of gentrification to look at gentrification as it is occurring in Germany and other post-socialist cities.