Creating the Urban Citizen in Hamburg and Marseille (1945-1973): A Trans-Urban History of Public Urban Green Spaces during the Postwar Period

This research explores the ways in which public urban green spaces (PUGS) shaped an urban citizenry. Set in the aftermath of WWII and continuing until the First Oil Shock in 1973, this study encapsulates a time of socio-political and urban restructuring. With a focus specifically on public parks and playgrounds, these two spaces allow for an in-depth analysis of how urban citizens were meant to spend their free time and how their behavior was formed by the public spaces available to them. The interplay between commissioners and users of PUGS is at the center of this project. Applying history of the body and social history to the intersecting categories of age, gender, body, class, and race, these pivotal points aid to find out by and for whom the PUGS were created and how and to what effect they were used. Each category is examined in the geographic settings of Hamburg and Marseille, rendering this a trans-urban history. To visualize this study and to add a further layer of analysis, this research uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map the development of the PUGS.