ABSTRACT
The chapter begins to discover unaccountable blurring, confusing distortions and considerable blind spots in the traditional window through which we view the history of planning. It explains for the shortcomings and reflected on the form that a window should take to overcome these defects. The chapter outlines these reflections with regard to a chapter that is missing in the international planning history debate, namely the history of European urban planning in the twentieth century. The history of Europe in the twentieth century is to a significant degree the history of the conscious development of towns and cities by means of public urban planning, be it in the name of a central or federal state, of a community or of an intermediate state level. Nonetheless, a European — a pan-European — history of urban planning in the twentieth century has not yet been written.
