EUKN - Germany - National Urban Policy of Germany

National Urban Policy of Germany

Introduction
Cities represent the future: jobs, economic dynamics, humane housing, architectural diversity and social cooperation. Cities combine the opportunities and risks of social change and globalisation. Attractive conditions of location are important, as are the quality of housing and life, as well as functioning markets for rented and owner-occupied housing. Demographic development and out-migration means that empty housing, which has emerged in many places in Germany, is one of the largest challenges to urban policy. The German Federal Government’s goal is to improve the general conditions for city investment, innovation, growth and social balance.

Historical Background
In recent decades, Germany’s challenges to urban development and planning have clearly changed along with its economic and social conditions. These dynamics cover all the city’s habitats and functions.

German reunification at the start of the 1990s represents a challenge to politics and society which is unique in history. Despite the differences in the development of the old and the new Federal States (‘Länder’), the following phases characterise urban policy in Germany:

reconstruction in the 1950s (reconstruction of cities and large stimulation of housing);
urban expansion in the 1960s (urban expansion against the background of economic growth and population dynamics, suburbanisation in the old Federal States, industrial housing in the GDR);
urban renewal in the 1970s (re-orientation of urban policy against the background of the economic crisis, more intensive orientation towards existing housing, revitalisation of inner-city neighbourhoods in the old Federal States, permanent construction of new housing and neglect of neighbourhoods with old buildings in the GDR);
urban reconstruction in the 1980s (stagnation of demographic development, shifting the focus towards home ownership assistance in housing policy, orientation towards inner-city development in urban policy);
integrated urban development since the 1990s (new challenges to urban development through increasing globalisation and German reunification, integrated urban development and urban reconstruction as a response to social, economic and demographic challenges).

Organisation
Germany’s settlement structure is highly polycentric. There are some 13,000 local authorities in Germany of varying sizes. More than 80 cities have 100,000 or more inhabitants. Berlin (3.4m inhabitants), Hamburg (1.7m inhabitants), Munich (1.2m inhabitants), Cologne (1.0m inhabitants) and Frankfurt a. M. (0.6m inhabitants) are the five largest cities. But the cities have grown beyond their administrative borders and form territorial-functional units with their surrounding local authorities which could be considered as urbanised areas or city regions. With over 12 million inhabitants the Rhine-Ruhr region is the largest city region in Germany. In Article 28 section 2 the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany entitles local authorities to settle all matters of the local community based on the existing laws within their own responsibility. Within this local self-government, local authorities have their own authority in terms of personnel, organisation, finances, planning and jurisdiction. The German Association of Cities and Towns (Deutscher Städtetag), the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (Deutscher Städte- und Gemeindebund), as well as the German County Association (Deutscher Landkreistag) are lobbies for the cities and municipalities at national and European level.

Current Issues
It is important to see the changes resulting from the demographic and economic change as an opportunity and to face the resulting tasks. This leads to new opportunities for the sustainability of cities and regions. The readiness to modernise, the democratic culture and the willingness to maintain and improve the economic and ecological principles are important components here. In terms of a sustainable urban development, the following main topics are particular focuses of attention:

settlements development under changed general conditions — orientation towards cities;
city cooperation at the regional level;
using the declining land use as an opportunity — making neighbourhoods more attractive for families with children;
creating socially stable urban neighbourhoods — regarding migration as an opportunity;
adapting the infrastructure to the needs of the elderly;
making mobility compatible with cities and the environment;
strengthening cities as business and innovation locations;
maintaining retail trade with its diversity — strengthening central supply areas;
improving local planning and private investors;
putting a different complexion on cities — culture forms cities;
maintaining old historic cities and using them as an economic factor;
intensifying modernisation of the existing building stock — reducing CO2 emissions.

Key Programmes
The Federation supports the production of sustainable urban development structures with urban development assistance programmes so that the cities are better able to cope with new tasks and challenges. The Federal Government grants subsidies to this end to the Federal States according to Article 104 section 4 of the Basic Law to which funds of the Federal States and the local authorities are added. The Federal subsidies are allocated to the Federal States based on an administrative agreement for urban development assistance (‘VV Städtebauförderung’).

The objectives of urban development assistance are:

strengthening inner cities and centres in terms of their urban development function, also taking the preservation of historic cities and monuments into account;
creating sustainable urban development structures in areas affected by a considerable loss of urban development functions; such losses are mainly characterised by a permanent oversupply of e.g. empty buildings or wasteland in inner cities, especially by derelict industrial, conversion and railway areas;
taking urban development measures to overcome social problems.

The following programmes have been developed by the Federal Government to achieve these objectives:

Urban redevelopment and development measures
Urban redevelopment and development measures are the classical programme of urban development assistance. According to § 136 of the Federal Building Code such measures improve or restructure an area to overcome urban development p roblems.
Preservation of historic cities and monuments
In many cities it is not only an individual building which is worth maintaining, but also streets, squares or historic inner cities. It is the task of the programme for the preservation of historic cities and monuments to maintain these historic ensembles with their special character and entirety.
Social City
To counteract social and spatial polarisation in cities, the Federal Government and the Federal States jointly launched the programme ‘Districts with special development needs — the Social City’. This is an urban renewal programme pursuing an integrative and thus new approach: urban development assistance is supposed to be combined with other assistance programmes to reinforce the effect of subsidies.
Urban restructuring in East Germany
The programme implements the interlinking of urban und housing policy recommended by the ‘Structural change of the housing economy in the new Federal States’ (‘Wohnungswirtschaftlicher Strukturwandel in den neuen Ländern’, Think-tank 2001). It aims at strengthening the attractiveness of East German cities and municipalities as places of living and working, and at stabilising housing markets.
Urban restructuring in West Germany
A change of the demographic and economic structure occurs increasingly in the cities of the old Federal States. This Federal Government-Federal States programme is supposed to support cities in the old Federal States in adjusting to these processes as early as possible. It aims at developing sustainable urban development structures based on urban development concepts.

The Federal Government has reinforced both the interlinking of urban and housing policy instruments and the integration of urban development requirements into the corresponding housing policies and instruments. Various existing housing policy instruments at the federal level have thus been reformed and new opportunities for assistance have been created to concentrate housing policies on the redevelopment and modernisation of the housing stock more intensively. Various aspects of housing and urban policy have thus been interlinked systematically to meet specific needs in the regions and in the local authorities.