How different would European cities have looked prior to WWII? Would much more Renaissance/Medieval/Classical buildings or artifacts exist?

by trinity5227

So many major European cities were heavily bombed during WWII. I assume that many very old buildings or castles were destroyed along with artifacts contained within them. This could also pertain to areas of Asia and North Africa. I'm not sure how this could be measurable, but I have always wondered what kind of historical impact WWII had on the world.

CantabKBH

Of course, and in fact you can see generally what they would have looked like by studying cities that a) weren't bombed as severely (Lübeck for example, Baden-Baden for a smaller example) or b) cities outside of the main area of operations that shared cultural traits with many destroyed cities: for Germany, look to Denmark, Austria, or Switzerland.

It worth mentioning that the bombings themselves a) didn't completely level most cities (even in Dresden some of the Grunderzeit areas survived and survive to this day) and b) that the real change in the 'look' and feel in many European cities, particularly Germany and the Eastern bloc comes from the rise of modernism (referred to tongue-in-cheek as "German Post-War Hideous) and architecture meant to reflect Communist aspirations which was, by and large, grim and depressing as an average citizen.

Certainly a lot was irretrievable, but cataloguing the precise impact of the war and not the pretty massive societal shifts after the war is a difficult science. Look at the US for example, cities in the US arguable changed more than many European locales without being bombed due to suburbanization/construction of freeways/'the urban crisis'.