Neustadt (German Imperial Quarter)

The Neustadt (New Town), centred on Place de la République in Strasbourg, Grand Est, France, is the district laid out by the German Empire after it annexed Alsace-Lorraine in 1871 following the Franco-Prussian War. Between 1880 and 1918 the German administration planned a large extension to the north-east of the old island, designed by Jean Geoffroy Conrath and Hermann Eggert, with wide avenues, squares and monumental public buildings meant to show the permanence and ambition of the Reich. Place de la République, originally the Kaiserplatz, is the focus, with the Palais du Rhin, the National and University Library, the Théâtre National de Strasbourg and the Palais des Fêtes arranged around a garden. The buildings follow the historicist styles of the period: neo-Renaissance, neo-Baroque and Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) facades in red and yellow sandstone, with towers, domes and decorative sculpture. The residential streets show apartment blocks with oriel windows, mosaics and ironwork. When Alsace returned to France in 1918 the quarter was kept, although some German symbols were removed, and it has remained a living district of housing, institutions and the European quarter nearby. UNESCO added the Neustadt to the Grande Île listing in 2017 as an extension, recognising it as a coherent example of German urban planning and as a counterpart to the medieval centre. The area is generally in good condition, with restoration of facades carried out by the city, and it suffered less wartime damage than the old town. Visitors can walk through the district at any hour, and a self-guided route links the main squares, the Palais du Rhin, the university area and the Parc de l'Orangerie. The district also shows how the German planners tried to link the old and new towns through a new avenue and railway station, built in 1883, which extends the central axis of the city. The ordered grid of streets, uniform building heights and green spaces contrast with the irregular medieval streets of the Grande Île and give the visitor a direct comparison between two periods of urban planning.