Abstract :
This historiographical review discusses recent literature on cities in modern Central
Europe – mainly on Berlin and Vienna – which reflects the great variety of approaches to urban history and
underlines the importance of urban history for the study of modernity. The history of urbanization was a
central event in the history of modernity. Especially in the Central European capitals of Berlin and Vienna,
where modernization and urban growth started later and then advanced more quickly than in West
European cities, all aspects of social, political, economic, and cultural modernity and its consequences can be
observed in detail.
