Symbol and Stage for the City - Traditional City Center and the Change of Urban Meta-Images A research project on West German cities since their destruction during World War II. This dissertation ist a research about concepts that were developed since the destructions of the Second World War for the traditional city centers - the symbolic cores - of cities in Western Germany. Four cities serve as case studies: Hamburg, Hildesheim, Frankfurt am Main and Kassel. They represent both the very different concept challenges and a variety of city types and city sizes. On these four examples the dissertation demonstrates the concepts of planning and of design and puts these concepts in relation to the tendencies in society and the major movements in politics, economy and culture at their respective times. The dissertation reconstructs view points and opinions of the different times through the perspectives of the different players, and with the help of an abundance of original materials. The dissertation applies two methods: 1 The description and the typological organization of the case studies, and 2 the systematical and concentrated discussion of certain time periods under the perspectives of certain hypotheses and meta-concepts. This is an interdisciplinary research. Under the view point of the history of planning, the dissertation focusses on the examination, interpretation and criticism of contemporary quotes such as competitions in urban design and architecture, protocols and the press. Under the view point of urban sociology the dissertation attempts to reconstruct the motives and urban meta-images of very different players and their integration into the contemporary movements and tendencies.