The Critique of Land Speculation and the Development of Anti-Liberal City Planning in Greater Berlin, 1900–33

In the discourse and practice of Berlin city planning, the vague practice of speculation—the purchase of a tract of land in hopes of a future increase in value due to its location—became the object of a wide variety critiques. Speculation was blamed for tenement houses, alcoholism, tuberculosis, working class radicalism, aesthetic chaos, urban sprawl, excessive population density, predatory lending, inflated land values, and instability in German capital markets. In the real estate industry, which requires significant investment of capital and time to bring commodities to market, risk is inherent. The riskiness and tendency to create market distortions inherent in land speculation became conflated with the market and liberalism in general. Speculation became a concept and practice that was used to explain all of the faults of urban modernity and of liberalism. As such, the attacks on speculation facilitated a move toward a more collectivist, state-interventionist form of city planning.