Hermann Mächtig died in 1909. In 1910, Albert Brodersen (1857-1930) was appointed to succeed him as director of city public gardens.
Especially in order to counteract the social and sanitary problems in housing, a citywide urban planning structure was demanded for Berlin, with functional zoning, structured construction zones, a citywide traffic plan, and a citywide open-space plan. In 1909, these demands led to a competition for the establishment of a land-use plan for Greater Berlin.
The works of Hermann Jansen, of Eberstadt, Möhring and Petersen, and of Brix and Genzmer, won awards, and in 1910 they were publicly displayed in a general urban planning exhibition.
The establishment in 1911 of the Administrative Association of Greater Berlin meant the creation of the first planning organization for the capital, which could now be involved in the establishment of building lines and construction plans, the regulation of traffic conditions and the preservation and acquisition of plots to be kept free of development.
The reform movements caused a rejection of the largely representative “decorative green spaces” in favor of “sanitary” and social green space in the cities. An example of this functional change was the prize-winning competitive entry for the design of the Schillerpark by Magdeburg garden architect Friedrich Bauer (1872-1937), which was built in the thickly populated borough of Wedding between 1909 and 1913.
By contrast with the “people’s gardens” built by Lenné, Meyer and Mächtig in the style of landscape gardens, the modern garden architects tried to create space functionally designed to permit popular possession of parks for exercise, play and sports, and also for cultural performances (music, theater, etc.).
In 1910, the Committee for the Support of Physical Exercise in Greater Berlin published a memorandum on the dearth of playgrounds. Only a few municipalities in Greater Berlin had provided playgrounds up to that time, which were however too small, and hence overcrowded. This was also true of the too-small playgrounds in the Humboldthain and in the Friedrichshain. The only larger playground was in the Treptower Park .
In 1914, two playgrounds were built on the expansion areas of Viktoriapark. Starting in 1912, Erwin Barth (1890-1933), the public gardens director of Charlottenburg (which was still a separate city) had restructured existing, usually representative city squares as “garden squares” with integrated playing areas, or built such squares anew.
But not only numerous green spaces and parks in Berlin were planned and built during this period. On March 27, 1915 the so-called permanent forest contract was also concluded. The Zweckverband Groß-Berlin thereby undertakes not to build on or resell the acquired land (10,000 hectares in the Grunewald, Tegel, Grünau, Köpenick and Potsdam), but to maintain it as a recreational area for the citizens in the long term.