Abstract
ABSTRACTThe objective is to establish the nature and intensity of the economic and social gradients across the former inner‐German frontier at the time of frontier opening in 1989. This focus on the borderlands on either side of the frontier is justified theoretically and empirically. Location theorists have categorised border regions as disadvantaged, and this proposition is tested. Empirically, the spatial juxtaposition of the former frontier districts serves to accentuate the degree of convergence which has to be achieved between the former economic and political systems. Using data primarily at a planning region level, the analysis demonstrates not only the presence of significant divergences across the inner‐German frontier, but also the existence of many shared and fundamental geographical characteristics. The former are creating enormous pressures in the short term, but the latter will have an important bearing on the longer‐term adjustment of these former borderlands to their new role in a unified Germany. The article concludes by cautioning against the adoption of over‐simplified responses to the frontier‐opening theme.
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