ABSTRACT
To towns that were going through urbanisation and industrialisation at the rate that Berlin and Stockholm were in the nineteenth century, growth had significant spatial consequences. The urban environment was constantly being settled and extended to accommodate the increasing population and new economic needs. The immediate reason for the creation of the Hobrecht Plan was the incorporation of the areas that lay outside the city wall in 1861. The town of Berlin thereby increased its area by 70 per cent to 5,923 hectares and its population now exceeded half a million. The unrestricted right of ownership of land and property was closely connected to the concept of 'freedom to build'. Freedom to build, which was extremely liberal, was limited only if 'the public good were damaged or endangered', according to the General Prussian Code of 1794. For most of the nineteenth century, Berlin's municipal government had observed important principle of avoiding financial risks by possessing as little land as possible.
