This paper deals with participatory decision making and planning processes. It critically looks at methods and tools that are practiced currently in Germany and in particular in the city of Berlin, where the author has close relationship to and has studied in depth the Berlin experience made during the past decades. The process of public involvement that started in the 1970ies in Berlin and in the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD) is going to be monitored continiously. Focus is laid on the discourse on whom and how when to involve. Meanwhile the city of Berlin has developed a handbook on public participation that is briefly presented and assessed in this paper. Selected best practice cases where certain tools have been successfully applied in Berlin will be presented and analysed. This paper is meant to enlarge the knowledge about state of the art dicourse on participatory urban planning, design and implementation and gives a brief outlook on replicability of instruments for participatory urban planning and design in the Syrian context.