Sanfte Gentrifizierung, Studentifizierung und Inseln ethnischer Konzentration in ostdeutschen Innenstadtrandgebieten?

Abstract

The year 1997 marks a turning point in the development of east German inner-city fringe areas: many old residential quarters have registered clear increases in the number of inhabitants again after a phase of exodus. The time of the trend reversal coincides with the development of an excess supply of housing space and decreasing rents, which determine the situation of east German housing markets until today and allow a relatively large freedom of choice in the search for housing. Under these conditions the social contrasts between emptying areas and areas that receive immigrants are increasing. Simultaneously a cultural differentiation between individual urban sub-areas is emerging as a result of the development of characteristic milieus. The article aims to provide a deeper insight into the developments in old residential areas near the inner cities since the middle of the 1990's. Recent trends are considered by taking the social change in the inner-city fringe areas from the period of industrial expansion in Leipzig over a period eight years as a case in point.