ABSTRACT
Like Coventry, Kassel was exceptionally rich in historic buildings prior to its devastation in World War II; like Coventry, it became a widely admired model of radically modern reconstruction in the period of the post-war Welfare State—only to come under heavy criticism in the 1970s as an exemplar of an 'inhospitable city'. Following annexation by Prussia in 1866, Kassel became the capital of the province of Hesse-Nassau and sharpened its identity profile as a public service and garrison town. Thus Kassel became a German model city of post-war reconstruction. Under its first three social democratic mayors, the city wrote history with its modernist orientation—not only in the historic city. Kassel was also a haven of objects of traditional culture that had survived the war, including the most important collection of Dutch paintings outside the Netherlands.
