ABSTRACT
In the Federal Building Code (BauGB), expropriation is primarily an instrument for the implementation of land use plans such as the general right of pre-emption, land reallocation, or provision of local public infrastructure. The historical background on the emergence of expropriation in Germany shows how scarcity of (building) land led to the development. After Second World War, an urgent reform of existing urban planning provisions, especially the regulations on expropriation, was required to allow for reconstruction of destroyed towns and villages and the accommodation of millions of resettlers and refugees. The amendment of the BauGB in 2004 added the preservation or removal of building structures in urban redevelopment areas as further expropriation purpose. BauGB is framed as administrative expropriation that is the regulation of expropriation in the BauGB in the form of an administrative act. BauGB as an instrument to ensure well-ordered urban development.
