Urban development in Germany — perspectives for the future

Abstract

The essay portrays urban development in Germany at the end of the 20th century in the transition from Industrial Modernity to the New Modernity. The city of the Industrial Modernity is described as a traditionally ‘closed’ and ‘mixed’ city. It corresponds to the classical European model of the compact city with a clearly defined centre and a surrounding area which is unambiguously oriented towards this centre. This urban model is disintegrating in Germany. The essay explains this lingering but fundamental process of change. The inner cities are decreasing in importance in favour of the urban fringe, traditional relationships and connections with our cities are lost, new regional activity areas are emerging in the environs of cities. Although the urban impacts of new communication technologies have not been completely clarified, they are changing previous local relationships in the cities. This is not without consequences for urban neighbourhood relationships. The increasing polarisation in German society also affects urban structure. The social mixture in cities disappears on a small scale, public spaces are losing their functions, undesirable population groups are excluded from participation in urban life in new shopping, leisure and transport facilities. The interaction between private and public agents who influence and determine urban development has changed in recent years, and the civic sense of responsibility for the city must be newly defined. Hopes are put into the debates on the Local Agenda and - in spite of its dangers - into a project-oriented planning approach.