ABSTRACT

This chapter introduces the International Commission for the History of Towns atlas programme, as it has been followed by the Deutscher Stadteatlas by the Deutscher Historischer Stadteatlas. It examines the additions and changes developed for the new series and, especially, the Brunswick atlas. The problem arising from the developments in terms of the atlas's contents has been solved by including Andreas Haacke's so-called 'district maps' of 1764–1766 in the Brunswick atlas as an additional plate. The basic idea was taken up by Paul Jonas Meier, who pondered the inauguration of what he called a German town's atlas. An historical and a modern oblique aerial photograph and pictures of important building assemblages as well as individual buildings convey information concerning the townscape's elevation. Development in Germany differs from that in the rest of Europe. Besides the national towns atlas programme, there are regional equivalents for the Rhineland, Westphalia and Hesse.