Between planning euphoria and civil resistance: the construction of the “Hüttentalentlastungsstraße” in Siegen (approx. 1960–2000)

This article focuses on the experience of loss in urban spaces in late modernity, taking as a graphic example the construction of an urban highway and its consequences in a densely populated and geographically challenging area in western Germany. This article argues that the shift in social narratives during the transition from modern to late-modern society had a direct impact on the perception of loss caused by previously autocratic urban planning and, thus, also had a direct influence on urban construction projects in times “after the boom” of the 1960s and the early 1970s.