ABSTRACT
Land readjustment has been applied in Germany for more than 115 years with great success in tackling the challenges of urban growth and urban renewal. The central reason for the development of land readjustment as a new instrument of land policy in Germany was the rapid growth of the cities and the great housing deficits in the nineteenth century. In Germany, mandatory land readjustment has proven itself as an officially conducted exchange of plots for the development of towns and villages. The mandatory land readjustment is a constitutional procedure that ensures the rights of the parties on a large scale. A land readjustment procedure allows a sparing and careful use of the limited resource land from an ecological point of view, and at the same time it ensures economically bearing and socially appropriate land use. Land readjustment balances private interests, and it is therefore a permanent task to increase the acceptance of planning by the owners.
