Changes of urban regions
shopping centres &
retail establishments
moved to
,,greenfield - sites"
residential suburbanisation
- urban development was dominated by suburbanisation
- urban flight & settlement centres surrounding core cities:
- growing demand for more space
- high land prices
East Germany:
migration to
suburbs started
Polarization within the cities
Today
Growing
&
shrinking cities
- seperate location qualities in suburban space - wide range of commercial opportunities
- new office complexes
- retail establishments
- motorway junctios
- airports
Ethnic
Consequences
- until few years ago ethnically homogenous
- 1/4 of total population with foreign background
- Munich: 23.5 %
- Frankfurt am Main: 21 %
- Leipzig: 6.5 %
- Dresden: 5 %
- disproportionate growth of neighbourhoods
- social & ethnic segregation
- different levels of income & origins
- emergence of neighbourhoods with new qualities
- gap between poor & rich has widened
Growing cities
Development of East & West
- developed very dynamically after WW ll
- until 1990 east & west grew independently
- now grown together
- some East German cities grow again
- confined to suburbs
- e.g. Berlin (growth noticeable in capital's vicinity)
- western cities keep growing
- will change because of demographic change
Shrinking cities
- Ruhr valley, Saarland, coastal regions in west - shrinking for years
- indicatiors:
- empty flats
- brownfield sites
- change from industrial to service based economy (people left to find work)
Urban System
Changes
of city centre
Economy
Gateway function
Urban Development in Germany
- balanced urban system
- system of cities: complex & functional devision of labour
- network of few larger urban centres - key functions:
- economic, political decisions & supervisory functions
- innovative & copetitive function
- gateway functions
- Frankfurt am Main: largest airport
- Munich: second largest airport
- cities with prominent economic
decisions:
- Frankfurt am Main (field of fiance)
- Munich & Cologne (insurance companies)
- Wolfsburg (VW)
- Gütersloh (seat of Bertelsmann publishing group)
- no significant commercial operations in east Germany
City centre
Attractivness
- most important urban space
- biggest variety of economic, cultural, administrative institutions
- historical centre - something to identifiy with
- attractions
- how cities were rebuilt after WW II:
- "spirit of times"
- original layout
- with symbolically, functionally, architecturally uprgrade - attractive residential neighbourhoods
University
&
science cities
Political functions
- covered by 16 state capitals (e.g. Berlin)
- federal institutions (Leipzig + Karlsruhe)
- Aachen
- Freiburg
- Göttingen
- Heidelberg
City quarters
- quarters in eastern & western Germany (Südvorstadt Leipzig/Glockenbach Munich)
- tend to be in growing cities
- expanding business companies settled there
- offer upmarket appartments, mix of retrailers, service providers, cultural establishment
Structure
Conclusion
National level
- Urban system
- Growing & shrinking cities
- Changes of urban regions
- Polarization
- Changes of city centre
- Conclusion
- Sources
Administration level
- shrinkin processes - increasing polarisation, more heterogenous cities
- gentrified neighbourhoods with lots of renovated old building
- attractive residences & workplaces
- large housing estates (built 1960s & 1970s)
- inner city living quarters (concentration of socially marginalised groups)
Sources
- two strategies to protect economic viability & to contribute social cohesion:
1. increasing communal attractiveness - persuade companies, people to stay, settle or come
2. dealing with unemployment, poverty & exclusion of discrimination
- key task: counterbalance the polarization within the cities
- Geographische Rundschau - Special Edition 2012, Urban Development in Germany: Towards Polarization - Claus C. Wiegandt
- www.nationsonline.org
- https://placemanagementandbranding.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/schrumpfende_stc3a4dte.jpg
- http://www.echo.ucla.edu/Volume9-Issue1/nye-media/Ruhr_Berlin_map.gif
- http://gaerial.de/mediapark_koeln.jpg