Potsdamer Platz – Past and Future

“Look through the entangled history of the German capital”

What it is about

A 3D web map focusing on a central area of Potsdamer Platz and western Mitte in Berlin, Germany. It shows 5 historical layers from 1910, 1938, 1945, 1969 and 2024, representing significant periods of urban transformation and chosen according to the availability of data sources. The neighbourhood described was once a vibrant commercial centre and transport hub before the Second World War, during which it was almost completely destroyed and then divided by the Berlin Wall. After reunification, the neighbourhood received a great deal of attention from development companies, who transformed the area into a new urban centre of the modern capital of the country. The purpose of this map is to introduce the audience to the complex history of the area.

How we built it

The changes in the urban landscape are best observed in a three-dimensional format, so that everyone can easily imagine the typology of the architecture, the width of the streets and the layout of the different eras.
To achieve this goal, we started with the current OSM building footprint data for 2024. From there we manually digitised building footprints for the years 1910 - 1939 - 1945 and 1969. These years were chosen due to the availability and quality of map and imagery data. This was possible using historical city maps and photographs (e.g. [3], [4], [5], [6] and [8], [9]). We researched the building level heights of the historic buildings, as well as other information such as roof shape, building name or function - where available. We used ArcGIS Pro for digitisation and 3D modelling. Our final product is a website created using the ArcGis Pro Experience Builder. In total, we showcase 3,600 buildings, 547 of which we digitised ourselves.

Challenges we ran into

The first and most significant challenge we faced was data availability and interoperability. While up-to-date polygonal data of the modern city is available from OpenStreetMaps, other available models, such as those from the Berlin Senate, were more difficult to integrate into our project framework (ArcGIS) due to their data format and lack of additional attribute information. Although the OSM data provided many important attributes (roof types, building name and function), it required data cleaning and preparation processes.
For the reconstruction of the historic buildings, we also faced the problem of finding relevant historic maps and, in particular, photographs of the streets. We estimated the heights of the buildings from their levels, which meant relying on digitised and openly available photographic material. Our methodology was therefore both slow and dependent on this photographic material. It should also be emphasised that the heights are only estimates, we estimated each building level to be between 3.5-5m, but as this was not a fully systematic approach there may be variations in the accuracy of the estimate. For buildings for which no photographic data could be found, we assigned a random height based on the minimum and maximum heights of buildings in the same block. This approach may be revised for future work.

What we're proud of

We did a good job of digitising the old maps, including the cadastral maps. We georeferenced the raster files, drew the buildings and tried to estimate the heights of most of the houses using historical photographs. This can be a great contribution to the digital heritage of Berlin. We also tried to preserve the information regarding the shapes of the roofs.

What we learned

Creating a 3D map was new to both of us and we learned how to work with 3D scenes in ArcGIS and how to create a web application from scratch. We also researched how to model the buildings with appropriate roofs, although we decided to stick to a more minimalist look for the features.

What's next

Our next steps in this project could be: to include street names and street layout, including pavements and trams; to include the year 1992 and possibly a year in the mid-2000s to show the large scale rapid development after reunification; to add more detail to prominent buildings; to enrich our current dataset.
It would be interesting to extend this project to the whole of Berlin, perhaps in cooperation with other interested parties in Berlin.

Sources

[1] Nowobilska, M., & Zaman, Q. M. (2014). Potsdamer Platz: the reshaping of Berlin. Springer International Publishing.
[2] Geoportal Berlin. Luftbilder 1928, Maßstab 1:4 000. Retrieved, December, 2024 from https://gdi.berlin.de/geonetwork/srv/ger/catalog.search#/metadata/6b746499-7354-3a3a-aa70-60e1fb37f993
[3] Geoportal Berlin. Luftbilder 1969, Maßstab 1:10 000. Retrieved, December, 2024 from https://gdi.berlin.de/geonetwork/srv/ger/catalog.search#/metadata/5eecd500-a3aa-35b9-98ad-d4011ea4bf74
[4] Geoportal Berlin. Städtebauliche Entwicklung. Retrieved, December, 2024 from https://gdi.berlin.de/geonetwork/srv/ger/catalog.search#/metadata/2e9cd015-e8d1-4b55-a8c1-57374f11bbd6
[5] HistoMapBerlin. K4 4233 1939. Retrieved, December, 2024 from https://histomapberlin.de/de/index.html
[6] Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg. Staatsarchiv Freiburg. Berlin historisch [Filmnegative, Ordner 0003]. Retrieved, December, 2024 from https://www2.landesarchiv-bw.de/ofs21/olf/struktur.php?bestand=60580&sprungId=2800117&letztesLimit=suchen
[7] Landesdenkmalamt Berlin. Denkmalkarte Berlin. Retrieved, December, 2024 from https://gdi.berlin.de/viewer/main/?Map/layerIds=basemap_raster_grau,k_alkis_land:1,denkmale:e_denkmalbereich_ensemble,denkmale:d_denkmalbereich_gesamtanlage,denkmale:c_gartendenkmal,denkmale:b_bodendenkmal,denkmale:a_baudenkmal&visibility=true,true,true,true,true,true,true&transparency=0,0,0,0,0,0,0&Map/center=%5b391187,5819319%5d&Map/zoomLevel=2 Additional Sources
[8] Geoportal Berlin. Gebäude- und Vegetationshöhen 2009/2010 (Umweltatlas). Retrieved, December, 2024 from https://gdi.berlin.de/geonetwork/srv/ger/catalog.search#/metadata/8dd391cd-8b79-3cd4-bd73-1f842d7f0d27
[9] Geoportal Berlin. Gebäudehöhen (Umweltatlas). 2023. Retrieved, December, 2024 from https://gdi.berlin.de/geonetwork/srv/ger/catalog.search#/metadata/d8b0505d-f1a8-433b-a8e0-867f106cecb3
[10] HistoMapBerlin. Straube 3B 1910. Retrieved, December, 2024 from https://histomapberlin.de/de/index.html
[11] Retro View of Mankind’s Habitat. Berlin Potsdamer Platz. Retrieved, December, 2024 from https://pastvu.com/
[12] Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. Ansichtskarten Online. Berlin. Retrieved, December, 2024 from https://akon.onb.ac.at/
Students
Lilly Tockner and Artur Kislitsyn

14th intake
Supervisor
Juliane Cron, M.Sc.
Keywords
3D map, web map, Berlin, historical map
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