ABSTRACT
Trajectories as such are, by nature, fictional constructs. On the surface, the trajectories constructed by planning history may claim to be unequivocally 'correct' expressions of 'reality', like the graphs made up by the precise measurements taken in physics, or the trajectories that proved so (fatally) useful for artillery. This chapter focuses on the way in which planning history has dealt with long-term trajectories, ruptures and controversies relating to the German city without extending the scope to anthologies of international planning history such as those by Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani and Carola Hein. Instead of continuing along the paths of urban history and architectural and building history—descriptive rather than analytical disciplines—planning history opened a complementary window. The window chosen by Werner Durth for his account of the long-term trajectories was the networks and the biographical interrelations and linkages ('Verflechtungen') shared by a group of German architects.
