the economic regions of germany

American Geographical Society

The Economic Regions of GermanyAuthor(s): Robert E. DickinsonSource: Geographical Review, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Oct., 1938), pp. 609-626Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/210305 .

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THE ECONOMIC REGIONS OF GERMANY

Robert E. Dickinson University College, London

F ROM the dynamic point of view an economic region is an area of interrelated activities and kindred interest and organization. It is an entity of human space-relationships, which are effected

through the medium of the route pattern and the urban centers. Such a region, therefore, embraces the complex and closely woven fabric of intercourse by means of which are effected the transfer of goods and persons and the distribution of services, news, and ideas, the very bases of society.

The revolution in transport and the great changes in the structure of society have largely outmoded the old regional organizations. In various countries much attention has been given of late to the problem of recasting the political framework and bringing it more into harmony with existing economic and social conditions.' In France, for example, economic regionalism2 had an early and energetic start, and at one stage there was a possibility that new regions would displace the departments as administrative units. In Britain various plans for regional reorganization have been put forward.3 In the United States the problem has been approached more thoroughly by the social scientists, who have found that the areal examination of social and economic phenomena is indispensable for the analysis of urban-rural interrelationships and the nature of social changes and maladjust- ments.4 The problem has also received a great deal of attention in Germany in the postwar years; for here there exists on the one hand a political framework that, with its numerous territorial inliers and out- liers, is a chaotic legacy from the past and on the other hand a vast economic and social structure, not much more than half a century old, that has called into being new major units of life and orientation.5 Abortive attempts were made to recast the divisions in accordance with the Weimar Constitution in I9I9. And in the postwar years numerous public authorities and scholars published the results of elaborate investigations8 of various aspects of the general problem and

1 See the note on "Proposed New Administrative Subdivisions of England, France, and Germany," Geogr. Rev., Vol. 7, 1r19, pp. i14-118.

2 See FranCois Prevet: Le regionalisme economique: Conception et realisation, Paris, 1r29. 3 For instance, C. B. Fawcett: The Provinces of England: A Study of Some Geographical Aspects

of Devolution, London, i9i9; G. D. H. Cole: The Future of Local Government, London, I92I; J. H. E. Peake: Devolution, a Regional Movement, Sociological Rev., Vol. II, I9I9, pp. 97-IIO.

4See, for example, R D. McKenzie's study of "The Metropolitan Community," New York and London, I933, one of the monographs on recent social trends in the United States prepared under the direction of the President's Research Committee on Social Trends.

5 Walther Vogel: Deutsche Reichsgliederung und Reichsreform in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Leipzig and Berlin, 1932.

' Two periodicals in which a number of articles are devoted specifically to this question are the Zeilschrift far Geopoiuik and Erde u,d, Wirtschaft. (The latter ceased publication in r934.) The literature is very large, and only leading references are given here.

609



6 10 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

of particular regions. In this paper attention will be directed to the major entities that exist and function as real units of economic and social activity and organization.7 Thus our problem has a dual aspect-region and metropolis.

Each of the great metropolitan centers of Germany is an old commercial and cultural focus. The development of communications, urban expansion, and growing intensity of commercial intercourse and organization have strengthened the grip of each on its umland and more firmly fixed the limits of the influence of competitive centers of the same rank. But it is in the nature of things that the heart of a region should be its nuclear cities and that towards the periphery relations should be more complex and areas transitional. The transitional areas often center around a medium-sized town, which has relations with two or more larger metropolitan cities but is sufficiently distant from them to function itself as an important focus of integration (see Fig. 8). Boundaries, however, may be defined with regard to some vital relationship; for example, local group feeling, a change in the character of economic production, or the distribution of population. Moreover, political frontiers of long standing are often very real cultural and economic boundaries and as such should receive due consideration.8 The essential concept is that of the region as an entity of human activity and organization, not a space bounded by lines.

Statistical appraisal of the regional significance of a city and its rank as a metropolitan focus is not easy. The city, in addition to being an industrial center (see Fig. i), is a commercial, cultural, and administrative focus (Fig. 8). It is now many years since the economic geographer J. G. Kohl' elaborated his theory of the functions and distribution of urban centers in an important treatise, which unfortu- nately is not well known outside Germany. The question has received considerable attention in Germany in recent years. Outstanding is the scholarly investigation of Christaller"0 in which he determines the status and distribution of all places in south Germany that are focuses of centralized functions. However, as he takes the distribution of telephones as his basic criterion, it is difficult readily to apply the method to other regions. More recently Schlier" has measured this

7 R. E. Dickinson: The Metropolitan Regions of the United States, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 24, 1934. pp. 278-29I.

8 This important fact can only be noted in passing. Internal frontiers have often persisted for centuries; for example, the Lech River as the approximate western boundary of Bavaria, the Fliming as the southern border of Brandenburg against Saxony, the lower Elbe as a frontier between the terrn- tories on each side of it. The Elbe has been one of the greatest problems of Hamburg; the port and urban extensions of the city lie astride the river, but the areas south of the Elbe lay beyond its effective control. However, the extension of the city, by a recent decree, has at length settled this questiOn-

s J. G. Kohl: Der Verkehr und die Ansiedelungen der Menschen in ihrer Abhhngigkeit von der Gestaltung der Erdoberfldche, 2nd edit., Leipzig, i85o.

10 Walter Christaller: Die zentralen Orte in Studdeutschland, Jena, 1933. 11 Otto Schlier: Die zentralen Orte des Deutschen Reichs: Ein statistischer Beitrag zum stadte-

problem, Zeitschr. Gesell. fur Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1937, pp. I6i-I70.



ECONOMIC REGIONS OF GERMANY 6iI

centrality and has graded urban centers for all Germany on the basis of a careful selection from the census returns. He selects the following: the officials (Beamien) and employees (Angestellten) in industry and handicrafts; all those engaged in wholesale trade, publishing, banking and insurance, etc.; in commerce (except workers, who are usually engaged in production); and in public and private service exclusive of

A- 0

i W + .t G ERMANY

/~~~~~~~~~ 0 0 o- 20,000 *-0 wo200,000

0 *~~~~~~4~~~*~ 5020,0

8 * -2O0O 0 * 100 vr 200,000

o - s -' 0 '1-0 00 0I 0 MILES r'EOC'R. REVIr?Wf so '- [ _| 0 5 100 150 KILsOMETERS

OCT. 1938 8 f - 126

FIG. i-Industrial regions of Germany. Redrawn from "Standort, Landesplanung, Baupolitik," by M. Pfannschmidt, I932. Key to areas: I. agricultural; 2, exclusively industrial; 3, dominantly industrial; 4, Ruhr. Industrial population of towns after Berufs- und Betreibszahlung, I925, prepared by the Institut fuir Konjuncturforschung. Scale of map: x: io,5oo,ooo.

domestic service. The table according to which the centers are graded he refers to as the zentrale Schicht (see Fig. 8).

INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

Before the individual regions are discussed, some of the basic facts of production, commerce, and organization will be briefly sum- marized, and the character of the regions and their centers will thus be thrown into stronger relief. Figures I, 2, and 3 indicate the main relevant facts of production. A wide industrial zone extends from the western frontier at Aachen to a broad base along the upland frontier zone against Czechoslovakia. It lies on the northern edge of, and extends into, the Mittelgebirge. The most exclusively industrial



6I2 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

areas are the Ruhr and the basin of the middle Elbe (central Germany). The Rhineland is the second industrial zone. The chief area here is the northern part of the rift valley; its main centers are Frankfurt and Mannheim. The Neckar Basin is the nucleus of another major industrial region in the southwest. Elsewhere the great cities are the

00~~~~~~~~~X0

EXTRACTIVE AND HEAVY

j~ ~~~~~~~ 'W7 cC ..S' S ~~~~~~~~~I ND;1C'USTRIE

00 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 03 AA4

--~~~~~~~Pq 2rS7 M -- grH

05 ~~ ~~~ ~~~~0 s0 0o ISO MLES

SEOOR.REVIEW ' 0 90 00 960 KILOMETERS OCT. 1930 8 0 9I

FIG. 2-Distribution of extractive and heavy industries. Key: i, heavy industries; 2, coal; 3, lignite, 4, iron ore; S. salt; 6. quarrying; 7, coastal industries; 8, peat; 9. oil. Adapted from a map in "Die deutschen Industriegebiete, ihr Werden und ihre Struktur'" by Gunther von Geldern-Crispen- dorf, Karlsruhe, 19,33.

chief industrial centers, the largest of which is, of course, Berlin. The character of the industries (extractive, heavy, or manufacturing) is shown in FigureS 2 and 3.

As regards agricultural regions reference should be made to an article in the Geographical Review in which criteria of classification are employed that fit well the purpose of this discussion.' Large holdings predominate east of the Elbe and on an extension westward that includes the loess soils of the Biirde between the Elbe and the Weser. Here are the two main regions of rye-potato-livestock production, in the north and northeast, and the belt of wheat-beet-livestock production, on the edge of the central uplands. A low ratio of population to cultivated area permits a surplus 'of grain, potatoes, and stock, which

32 Heinrich Niehaus: Agricultural Conditions and Regions in Germany, Geogr. Rev., VoL. 23, 1933, pp. 23-47.



ECONOMIC REGIONS OF GEMIANY 613

is directed mainly to Berlin and Saxony; rye is normally exported in large quantities to Scandinavia. Medium-sized holdings predominate in the northwest and in Bavaria. The northwest has a large production and surplus of potatoes, dairy products, beef, and swine. Bavaria north of the Danube is characterized by livestock and crop production,

o X-n

MANU'FACTURING INDUSTRIES iT 1 z2 Iiiis3 EII:+ 5&

- / , 6 7 e8 e3 10 40s / il tI{S 0011 **1a soo3 ooj4

0 1 007 13 0 0014 - . 0 ;-} |Pt-so-t 1ss oO~~~~~~so 100 1~ MILLS

Gr0OR.REVIEW, | 0 00o | O 1 00 KILOMETERS OCT, 1938a [ 12 t6

FIG. 3-Distribution of manufacturing industries. Key: i, heavy industries; 2, iron and metal; 3, chemical; 4, electrical; S, optical, etc.; 6, textile; 7, leather, shoe; 8, wood, paper; g, tobacco; Io, mixed industries; II, toys; 12, musical instruments; I3, basket work; I4, food preserves. Adapted from a map in "Die deutschen Industriegebiete," by Gunther von Geldern-Crispendorf,

in contrast with the dairying production (and surplus) of the Alpine Foreland and the Neckar Basin. Small holdings (less than I2 Y2

acres) predominate in the Rhineland, and the farmer sells mainly small quantities of wine, fruits, tobacco, etc. Throughout the south and west farmers live on small, subdivided farms, and the domestic demand absorbs the bulk of the production. Here, however, are large industrial areas-the Ruhr, the middle Rhine, Wtirttemberg, Baden, and Munich. Consequently all of this half of Germany is on balance an importer of certain food supplies-grain, potatoes, swine, The chief consumer is the overwhelmingly urbanized region of the lower Rhine. The principal sources of supplies are the B6rde and the northwest: the west is too remote to draw on the surpluses of the east; in any case, the main grain there is rye. Thus, through the medium of the Rhine, large quantities of wheat are imported from abroad.



614 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

x

__ MEAT SUPPLY AREAS FOR

I -

FIG. 4The meat supply of the three greatest German industrial areas. After Scheu: Des Reiches wirtschaftliche Einheit (see footnote 13). Scale: i 6ooo,ooo.

INTERREGIONAL RELATIONSHIPS:

FOODSTUFFS

The concentration of people in urban areas neces- sitates the impor- tation of food supplies from extensive home areas and perhaps from abroad. The specialization of modern industrial production en - tails a dependence on distant home markets, nation- wide relationships

with regions of complementary character, and a dependence on ports for foreign trade.l3 This highly complex fabric of interregional relationships can be illustrated here by only a few examples. The subject has been thoroughly studied by Professor Scheu on the basis of goods-traffic returns (water and rail-borne) by trade districts. The regions that import the largest quantities of grain are Saxony and the lower Rhine and the densely populated areas of Wiurttemberg and Baden. Even Bavaria is on balance an importer, mainly on account of the large demands of its two chief cities, Nuremberg and Munich. The main centers of grain distribution are indicated by the location of the milling industry. The large centers of Hamburg and Bremen depend on imported foreign supplies; Berlin depends largely on the east Elbian region. The two chief milling regions of the Rhineland, also depending mainly on foreign supplies, brought up the Rhine, are the lower Rhine area, which supplies the urban areas of the northwest, and the Mannheim district, which is the chief supplier of the southwest. The other important areas of concentration are the two rich agricultural areas of central Germany and Silesia.

As regards meat supplies14 (see Fig. 4), the slaughterhouses of the lower Rhine urban centers obtain the bulk of their cattle, calves,

1J Erwin Scheu: Deutschlands wirtschaftsgeographische Harmonie, Breslau, I924; idem: Des Reiches wirtschaftliche Einheit- Eine Darstellung der inneren Verflechtung des Deutschen Reiches in allen seinen Teilen, Berlin, 1926; idem: Die wirtschaftsgeographische Gliederung Deutschlands. Erde und Wir:schaft, Vol. i, 1927-1928, pp. 7-30; idem: Deutschlands Wirtschaftsprovinzen und Wirtschaftsbezirke (Weltpolitische Bucherei, V0ol. 2), Beilin, 1928; Ernst Tiessen: Deutscher Wirt- schafts-Atlas, edited by the Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie, Berlin, I929; Wilhelm Volz: Die wirtschaftsgeographische Struktur des Deutschen Reiches, Uiss. V'erbfenti. Deutsch. Museums fir Ldnderkunde su Leipzig, No. 4 (N.S.), 1936, pp. 39-69.

"' Fritz Apitz: Die Schlachtviehversorgung Deutschlands, Dissertation, Greifswald, 1933.



ECONOMIC REGIONS OF GERMANY 6I5

and swine from Westphalia, Han- over, and Olden- burg. Practically all the Ruhr's supply of swine comes from this same area. Berlin's meat supplies come mainly from Pomerania and East Prussia. Saxony, with its five million people, imports pigs (in spite of its own large production) from Schleswig-

9 ~~~~~~40 ~~~~~s --St-@

4X e X { - o -A

LIGNITE PRODUCTION * ~~AND MOVEMENT

* X \ is S0000 0/ons

* * Mrebu - Thoirlngen

- a Q C ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lef't bank Rhi,ne

5~~~~~~- / --' 't '9 \ -52

FIG. 5-Lignite production and movement. After Scheu: Des Reiches wirtschaftliche Rinheit.

Holstein and, to a less extent, from Province Saxony, Lower Silesia, and Thuringia; cattle are obtained mainly from the contiguous areas.l5

RAw MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURED GOODS

The movement of raw materials and manufactured goods shows a much more complicated pattern. The principal coalfields of Germany are near its frontiers, a location favorable for export, disadvantageous for central distribution at competitive prices. In prewar days Upper Silesia supplied the area east of the Elbe, except in its lower reaches; the Ruhr served mainly the northwest. Large quantities were sent to central Germany and to south Germany, and large quantities of coke to the Saar. Coal from the Saar was sent to the south, where it competed with Ruhr supplies (see below). Through the ports came English coal, some ten million tons annually, into the area between the two competitive sources of coal supply; the three supplies met and competed in Berlin. It is in this intermediate area that the phenomenal development of brown-coal (lignite) production has taken place, during and since the war, and the industry has found its chief market (Fig. 5). Brown coal, used as a fuel or converted into briquettes, has a limited marketing radius. The bulk of the production of the plains of central Germany is used on the spot in the sugar-beet and chemical industries and for the generation of electricity, which is distributed throughout this vast industrial region. The trade in brown coal is directed mainly to the complementary industrial region of Saxony. A similar development and export of brown coal to com-

16 Erwin Scheu: Die Lebensmittelversorgung der sachsischen GrossstAdte, Schiesische Jahrbicher fur Geistes- und Naluruvissenschaften. Vol. 2, No. 3, Breslau, I924, pp. 179-208.



6i6 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVTIEW

| TRADE IN MACHINERY

*- - e- /

FIG. 6-Trade in machinery of all kinds. After Scheu: Des Reiches wirtschaftliche Einheit.

plementary and neighboring industrial areas-in this case the areas of the lower Rhine- is found in the other main area of production, in the bay of the Cologne lowland, west of the city. It may be added that the main marketing areas of the chief producers of iron and steel coincide, in general, with the coal areas,

the main centers of production of both products being, of course, the same.

Of the metal industries, the manufacture of railroad stock and repair works is located particularly in relation to the great railroad focuses. The manufacture of agricultural implements is concentrated near the principal markets of the chief agricultural areas-the lower Rhineland (Dusseldorf), the middle Elbe Basin (Leipzig, Magdeburg), Silesia, and south Germany (Augsburg). The electrical industries are chiefly concentrated in Berlin and other large cities, especially in the lower Rhineland. The remaining large variety of machine industries show a marked concentration in four areas-the middle Elbe Basin (western Saxony, parts of Thuringia, and the Province of Saxony); Berlin; the lower Rhine region (heavier goods); the Rhine- Main region.

The great variety, complexity, and specialization of the machine industries result in an active interregional exchange. Figure 6 shows the nature of this exchange (the Ruhr is omitted). It brings out the great importance of central Germany, especially Saxony. From here the largest proportion of goods is sent to Berlin-with very little in return-but there is also a large traffic with Silesia, Thuringia, Province Saxony, and Bavaria. The closed relationships of the south- western trade districts and of Silesia indicate the existence here also of a fairly contact trade association. The Ruhr specializes in heavier goods. Its chief customers, which send far more to the Ruhr (machinery and tools) than they receive, are Berlin and Saxony. The bulk of its exchange is w\ith the contiguous industrial districts of the lower Rhine.

The distribution of the textile industries may be taken as a second



ECONOMIC REGIONS OF GERMANY 6 I 7

example (Fig. 3). Again because of market concentration and specialization, there is a large exchange of yarns and cloths between the various textile districts. As to the trade in yarns, the lower Rhine region is an independent unit area of inter- change; Wiirttem- berg is most closely connected with Saxony, Baden, and

z -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~---- --

TRADE AREAS OF PORTS Ebe Weer' Balc

x ~~~~~~~~~~~~~T

FIG. 7-The trade areas of the German ports. After Scheu: Des Reiches wirtschaftliche Einheit.

southern Bavaria; Saxony has its closest relations with northern Bavaria (Hof), Thuringia, and Silesia. There is also a movement of woven fab- rics to the finishing factories. These, too, are specialized and localized. For example, the finishing cotton industry of Silesia treats principally south and west German cottons, which are then sent as finished goods to Berlin; from Berlin, through the hands of wholesalers, they ulti- mately reach the consumer. Other areas finish locally produced cloths; for example, the cheap hosiery and clothing stuffs of Munich- Gladbach. Wholesaling is concentrated in the large cities for local and regional distribution. The Sa:xony area supplies central Ger- many and the lower Elbe and Baltic provinces; western Germany is supplied from such centers as Wuppertal (i.e. Elberfeld-Barmen), Munich-Gladbach, and Frankfurt; and southern Germany from Stuttgart, Augsburg, and Aschaffenburg.'6

Another form of interregional integration is effected by the sea and river ports. An attempt to show the seaports has been made by Scheu (see Fig. 7)17 on the basis of railway returns of goods traffic by trade districts and is generalized.

INTRAREGIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Although the metropolitan cities and other urban areas are perhaps the strongest welding forces for their regions, the directive forces of traffic are not merely radial to them. A densely peopled industrial area shows a clearly defined pattern of settlement and a close and

16 Scheu, Des Reiches wirtschaftliche Einheit, pp. 28-36. 17 For a thorough study of the trade and hinterlands of the German ports see Alfred Riihl: Die

Nord- und Ostseeh8.fen im deutschen Aussenhandel, Veroffend. Inst. fur Mldeereskunde, N. F., B, Historisch-volkswirtschaftliche Reihe, No. 3, Berlin, 1920.



6i8 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

complicated network of routes, which, in the form of population and traffic density maps, may serve as main bases of regional characterization."8 A division of the Reich into districts is adopted for many purposes by departments of the government, by industrial concerns for the transaction of business or the distribution of supplies from central offices, and by trade and professional organizations. Al- though the districts differ greatly and are naturally based on the existing political divisions, they often reflect a regard for such considerations as community of economic interest. One of the most significant groups is the Wirtschaftskammer, a chamber of commerce directly subordinate to the Reichswirtschaftskammer. On it are represented the chambers of industry and trade of each Bezirk in the region, and it cares for the interests of all employed persons. There are i8 of these groups. A related important body is the Ministry of Labor (A rbeitsministerium).. Labor questions (unemployment, insurance, etc.) are handled within each of its 13 districts (Landesar- beits&mter).19

EXTENT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REGIONS

Postwar political reformers aimed at the creation of regions that should be effective units of political and cultural life and also (partly for the sake of expediency) coincide as closely as possible with existing political units, thereby recognizing in some places-Bavaria, for example-a real and traditional independence and unity. Noteworthy in this respect is the abortive plan of Professor Hugo Preuss, the father of the Weimar Constitution, who suggested a division into I6 free states. Similar schemes were later put forward, but they all failed to take adequate cognizance of the facts of economic activity and regional orientation. However, in recent years a great deal of research has been done in regional orientation; and from a number of schemes two have been selected. Erwin Scheu, professor of geography at Konigs- berg, has thoroughly examined20 the innere Verfiechtung and the structure of the economic regions of Germany. He recognizes smaller regions (Wirtschaftsbezirke) and larger provinces (Wirtschaftspro- vinzen). Their characterization was based on the criteria discussed above, and principally on goods-traffic statistics. These criteria Scheu sums up under the headings of the static elements of production and the dynamic elements of commerce. In the latter the main directive force is the market, and this, as a unifying factor of regional

18 For example, Hildegard Ende: Die Verkehrsdichte des Deutschen Reichs, Archiv fur Eisen- bahnwesen. I935, pp. 525-574 and 8I7-850 (29 commercial districts on the basis of rail, post, river, and air traffic); and Irmfried Siedentop: Geographie der deutschen Strassen, Petermanns Milt., Vol. 83, 1937, pp. 97-I02. map on p. I00. See also footnote 30.

19 For similar data see Handbuch fur das Deutsche Reich, 1936, Reichsministerium des Innern, Berlin.

20 See footnote I3.



ECONOMIC REGIONS OF GERMANY 6I9

integration, consists of the principal urban centers. Weitzel, a public administrator of Frankfurt, made an investigation of the Rhine- Main region. He suggests a division of the Reich into I2 regions, as determined by "the economic interests of the separate sections of the Reich, their geographical contiguity, their social structure and

) ?y7p

\iqB~remen

S S \ E __lo t ,[ ,> Serlin9 .-

0 tL7vFpzj 9o * 3 /

/ 9,9 j 0 I

. 0 ..oECONOMIC REGIONS: r o *

. NUmbe e AND COMMERCIAL CENTERS ttuttgaF

?~~~~~~~ ,> Tn ranst/o / area

~Stt 9 P } ersons irn centr lized urban7 servAces

s f ondr 000 . -3000 _4s #y 1 < KJ / E hunich/t * s;-8s0o u1 o-so;0poo

/ O ? ? \ 8~9 * -/5000O 3 over 50,000

*0$ ECONOMI REGION I ? 50 50MIS {;~~~~NDCME0RCIA CREN4E 7t, 0 )10)0KLMTERS

FIG. 8-The economic regions of Germany and their commercial centers.

cultural unity. "21 lThe zone of influence of the chief city seems also to have been a principal criterion of delimitation. These two schemes show a general similarity. The only important differences between them are Weitzel's recognition of a lower Elbe region, comprising Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, and his extension of the Frankfurt range of influence to include the debatable middle Weser (Kassel region), which is also closely associated with Hanover, to the north. There are, indeed, several areas with varied economic allegiance, which, being transitional in character, it is difficult to bring into a rigidly defined scheme (see below).22 Many other schemes have been prepared, and, what is more important, many areas have been sub-

21 A. Weitzel: Die regionale Gliederung Deutschiands nach Wirtschafts- und Verkehrsgebieten, Erde und Wirtschaft, Vol. 2, 1928-I929. pp. I-I3; idem: Die raumverschiebende Auswirkung der Neugliederung in dem rheinfrankischen Wirtschaftsgebiet, ibid., Vol. 3, I929-1930, pp. r-24 and 70-90.

22 For modifications of Weitzel's scheme see Erich Obst: Zur Neugliederung des Deutschen Reiches, Zeitschr. fiur Geopolilik, Vol. 5, 1928, pp. 27-40.




jected to a searching analysis of their regional relationships by scholars with varied interests and objectives. In this work geographers have played a very important part. Figure 8 presents a suggested division of Germany into economic regions based on this work and also on the investigations of individual regions. The following is a brief summary of their outstanding characteristics.

ECONOMIc REGIONS OF GERMANY

Pomerania and East Prussia.23 The Baltic provinces constitute a distinctive agricultural region, characterized by large holdings, a low density of population, and a large surplus of rye, potatoes, and dairy products. There are two distinct areas of orientation, however: Pomerania, with its center in Stettin; and East Prussia, isolated by the Corridor, with its center in Konigsberg.

Nordmark.24 Schleswig-Holstein is closely connected with Meck- lenburg. The whole region is often referred to as the Nordmark. Agriculturally it is dominated by the raising and fattening of stock and by dairy farming. Culturally and in its organization it is associated with Lower Saxony, west of the Elbe. Commercially it is largely focused on Hamburg, an association strengthened by a community of economic interest with Kiel and Luibeck and by the existence of the Kiel Canal. The lower Elbe region may be assigned to it. But Hamburg, like Bremen, offers a peculiar problem. These two great ports constitute large isolated urban agglomerations with very specialized functions and interests and enjoy a long-standing political independence as free cities. The lower Elbe and the lower Weser are, in fact, two distinct economic units, the independent political status of which is generally advocated. An important step in this direction was taken by the Reich in the spring of I936 by the extension of the political boundaries of Hamburg to include Altona and Harburg- Wilhelmsburg (the port and contiguous areas on the left bank of the river).21

Brandenburg consists of the region of the Urstromtdler. It is limited to the south against the rich wheat-beet lands by a belt of sandy upland that extends from northern Silesia through the Flaming to the Liune- burg Heath uplands. Potato cultivation characterizes its farming, and the life of the whole region is tied up with Berlin. With it must be included the lignite field of Lower Lusatia, which exports the bulk of its production to Berlin either as briquettes or in the form of electricity.

23 G. Braun and W. Hartnack: Die preussische Provinz Pommem bei der Neueinteilung Deutsch- lands, 49/50. Jahrbuch Pommersch. Geogr. Gesel., Greifswald (1931/32), 1932, pp. 53-88.

24 E. Hinrichs: Nordmark: Die Ostseelbsung fur Schleswig-Holstein, Lilbeck, Mecklenburg, Rendsburg, I93I.

25 See Walther Vogel: Die Gebietsbereinigung im Nordwesten des Deutschen Reiches, Peermanns Mitt., Vol. 83, I937, pp. 65-66, and accompanying map (P1. 9: Hansestadt Hamburg und der neue Hamburger Hafen, by R. Schleifer).



ECONOMIC REGIONS OF GERMANY 621

Lower Saxony2f is a distinct cultural and economic entity, which finds expression in most regional organizations. It contains the reclaimed areas of the Geesten and Marschen, important areas of beef and dairying production; the loessic loams to the south, which support a portion of the beet-wheat agricultural belt; an industrial axis based on minerals in the Harz, brown coal in its foreland in the east, and iron mining near Osnabruick in the west; and, to the south, part of the Mittelgebirge. It is crossed by ancient and modern routes by land and water, which, running east-west or north-south, have their chief focus in Hanover, the regional capital. The peripheral areas are notoriously transitional. The Osnabrtick area, for example, is also closely connected with Westphalia, and the region of Kassel with Frankfurt.

The Lower Rhineland (Rhinekand-Westphalia)27 has its axis in the coal and lignite fields and their related industries. This axis extends almost without interruption from the frontier at Aachen to the eastern extremity of the Ruhr. The transport facilities offered by the Rhine have called into being ancient cities, ports, and new heavy industries. The Muinster bay (Westphalia) and the massif to the south are brought into the orbit of this urban complex as sources of food supply. The iron-mining area of the Siegerland should also be included in the region. The Coblenz area, however, with its vineyards and quarries, must be regarded as transitional between the lower Rhineland and the Rhine-Main province. The whole region contains many large towns, but Cologne, DUsseldorf, Essen, Dortmund, and Wuppertal are metropolises.

The Middle Rhine (Rhine-Main Region)28 has its traditional focus in Frankfurt. The heartland is formed by the urban belt Mainz- Frankfurt-Aschaffenburg. The routeway of the Rhine and the con- tinuance of old industries have created a great industrial area- chemicals, leather, and engineering. But it is at the same time an

26 Kurt Briining: Niedersachsen im Rahmen der Neugliederung des Reiches. 2nd edit., 2 Vols., Veroffenti. Wirtschaftswissenschafil. Gescl. sum Sludium Niedersachsens E. V.. Ser. B. Nos. s and ir,

Hanover, I929 and 193I. In 1928 the Landiag of the Province of Hanover passed the following resolu- tion: "The Landesdirektorium is requested . . . to collect material regarding those economic and technical administrative difficulties in the economic region of Niedersachsen . . . that are to be attributed to the frontiers of the Ldnder. It should further be examined to what degree the conse- quences of the territorial disintegration . . . can be removed." These two volumes are the result of this inquiry.

27 B. Kuske: Die Volkswirtschaft des Rheinlandes in ihrer Eigenart und Bedeutung, Essen, 2925; 0. Most. B. Kuske, and H. Weber. edits.: Wirtschaftskunde fUr Rheinland und Westfalen, 2 vols., Berlin, I931 (a scholarly and authoritative work); H. Aubin. 0. BtIhler, B. Kuske, and A. Schulte, edits.: Der Raum Westfalen, Vol. x, Grundlagen und Zusammenhange, Berlin, 193r; Hans Spethmann: Ruhrrevier und Raum Westfalen, Oldenburg, I933 (a critical supplement to the work "Der Raum Westfalen").

28 Walter Behrmann and Otto Maull, edits.: Rhein-Mainischer Atlas fUir Wirtschaft, Verwaltung und Unterricht. Frankfort on the Main, I929; Hans Schrepfer: Uber Wirtschaftsgebiete und ihre Bedeutung fiUr die Wirtschaftsgeographie (mit besonderer Bertcksichtigung des Rhein-Mainischen Raumes), Geogr. Wochenschr.. Vol. 3, I935. Pp. 497-520; C. Lier: Das Rhein-Main Gebiet als wirtschafts- und verkehrsgeographische Einheit, Deutsche Zestschr. filr Wirischaftskunde, Vol. i, 2936, Weitzel, op. cit.




area of intensive agriculture characterized by small holdings, with an output of fruits, vines, and tobacco. The extent of the region in the uplands encircling the lower rift valley has been recently studied by Schrepfer on the basis of the sphere of influence of Frankfurt.

The Southwest Region.29 The Rhine rift in its productive aspects shows essentially the same features from Mainz to Basel. But the association of its southern portion (south of the middle Rhine region) is eastward with Wiirttemberg and westward with the Palatinate and the Saar. Small family.holdings are found throughout, and domestic industries are characteristic of Baden and Wiirttemberg. The capital of the whole region is Stuttgart; but the agglomeration Mannheim- Ludwigshafen is the chief center of the heavy industries (chemicals) and the chief river port of the upper Rhine and serves as the chief distributor of imported supplies. More than 6o per cent of the goods distributed from the port area have their destination within the region. Moreover, about 6o per cent of this traffic is coal, two-thirds of which comes from the Ruhr and the rest from the Saar.30

Bavaria is often regarded as a single political unit for administrative purposes. But it falls into two parts-northern and southern- approximately divided by the Danube. In culture, history, and agriculture these regions are distinct, and each has its own commercial and industrial capital-Nuremberg and Munich respectively.

Silesia3l contains a threefold -combination of Sudetic uplands (dairying and industry), a heartland of wheat-beet production, and an eastern zone of relatively unproductive country with rye and potato cultivation. Breslau and Upper Silesia are its two principal industrial areas, and Breslau is its metropolitan center; on three sides its limits are fixed by international frontiers. This region is regarded as a unit area for most administrative purposes, -and it is, indeed, one of the most distinctive and stable of the regions.

Central Germany (Mitteldeutschland)32 is the economic epitome and heartland of Germany. It consists of a zone of encircling uplands

29W. Ehmer: Siidwestdeutschland als Einheit und Wirtschaftsraum, Stuttgart, 1930; Willi Hiifner: Wirtschaftliche Verflechtungen in Siidwest-Deutschland (Zum wirtschaftlichen Schicksal Europas, Part 2, Arbeiten zur deutschen Problematik, No. 3), Berlin, 1935.

30 The external trade relations of the Saar, which were mainly with the Rhine-Main region and the south before the war, have since been oriented, with regard to foodstuffs, raw materials, and fabricated goods, toward France. A major problem now is its effective reabsorption into the network of German economy. See Robert Capot-Rey: The Industrial Region of the Saar, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 25, 1935, pp. 137-14I; and Hermann Overbeck and G. W. Sante, edits.: Saar-Atlas, Gotha. I934, pp. 19-23 and maps.

81 W. Volz: Schlesien im Rahmen der wirtschaftsgeographische Lage Deutschlands, Breslau. 1924. See also Walter Geisler, edit.: Wirtschafts- und verkehrsgeographischer Atlas von Schlesien, Breslau, 1932.

32 There is a large literature on the problem of Mitteldeutschland. Special mention may be made of * Mitteldeutschland auf dem Wege zur Einheit," im Auftrage des Provinzialausschusses der Provinz Sachsen, Merseburg, I927; and H. Thormann and E. Staab: Der mitteldeutsche Raum, Merseburg, 1929. The atlas entitled "Landesplanung im engeren mitteldeutschen Industriebezirk: Ihre Grund- lagen, Aufgaben und Ergebnisse," edited by the Landesplanung Merseburg. Merseburg, I932, is a magnificent piece of cartographic work. See also the general essay by R. Reinhard: Mitteldeutschland. Gcogr. Zeitschr., Vol. 42, 1936, pp. 32I-359.




Harz, Thuringian Forest, and Erzgebirge and a heartland of lower relief, in which arable loessic soils predominate. This heartland, and indeed the region as a whole, is bounded on the north by a belt of unproductive uplands, with sandy soils of glacial origin, in which heath, pinewoods, and rye and potatoes predominate. The southern upland zone is the site of old, established domestic industries, now often concentrated in factories. The most outstanding are the textile and machinery industries of Saxony and Thuringia. The loess area, with its wheat and beet farming, contains brown-coal and salt deposits. The rapid development of these resources led to the growth during and since the war of a vast industrial complex that extends from south of Leipzig to Brunswick. Throughout the region there is a dense route network and an economic interdependence that, as measured by goods traffic, exceeds the relations of its parts with any single neighbor. The chief metropolitan centers are Leipzig, Dresden, Magdeburg, and Chemnitz. Leipzig, with its neighbor and competitor Halle, is the geographical focus and the chief commercial center for the whole region.

NEW REGIONS IN THE THIRD REICH

The National Socialist government has placed in the forefront of its program a coordinated plan of national and regional development. On March 29, I935, a National Board (Reichsstelle) was created to regulate the land requirements of public bodies "in a way that suits the needs of people and state." On June 26, I935, the title of National Planning Board (Reichsstelle fiir Raumordnung) was conferred on this body, and to it was entrusted "the comprehensive coordinated planning of the whole Reich." To facilitate this, the Reichsstelle was made responsible for the organization and control of all national and regional planning authorities. It must be realized that this program of Raumordnung and Raumplanung is very comprehensive, that it extends further than the zoning of land utilization, though this is, of course, a fundamental part of it, and that it is guided in practice by the tenets of National Socialist philosophy. Of the many general statements that have been made by leading authorities in launching the scheme, the following may be quoted from a speech by Reichsminister Kerrl, head of the Reichsstelle fuir Raumordnung:33 Fundamentally it is our endeavor to direct all changes in the German State, whether effected by settlement, commercial developments,- or the erection of industrial establishments or through other demands on the land, on a basis of planning and foresight, in the common interests of the people and the State; and also to place all such developments under the guidance and security of the State. In this con- nection, three great problems may be emphasized: a thorough clearance of the urban agglomerations in the industrial areas and great cities, a legacy from the

33 From a speech given at the Conference of the Landeskulturgenossenschaften on January 2i, t936, in the Reichserziehungsministerium, quoted in the Geogr. Zeitschr., Vol. 42, I936, p. 148.




unregulated, planless growth of the past; the planned penetration and economic development of those regions that hitherto have been relatively neglected and unprotected, and particularly those in the east; and, finally, the working out of comprehensive plans, such as organically must emerge if the guiding tenets and the principles of planning by the State are to find logical application for the common good of people and State.

For this great program a framework was established by the Reichsstelle in February, I 936. The Reich is divided into 23 Planning

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Regions (Planungsraume), which generally coincide with the provinces of Prussia and the Lander. The Ruhr region (Ruhrsiedlungsbezirk), Berlin, and Hamburg remain as separate regions. In each region the chief planning authority is the supreme representative of the Reich (Reichsstatthalter or, in the provinces, Oberprdsident) and is directly responsible to the National Board. The main organization is the Regional Planning Federation (Landesplanungsgemeinschaft), a body on which are represented all facets of human activity in the region- social, economic, political, administrative, and academic. This body is responsible for examining the conditions and needs of its region and for constructing a comprehensive regional plan. The actual work of planning is in the hands of the Regional Planner. But such planning must be preceded by an elaborate scientific investigation of the conditions and problems peculiar to the region. To this end the board has




established a central body for the direction and co6rdination of planning research (Reichsarbeitsgemeinschalft fur Rcumforschung). Subordinate to this, groups have been formed in most universities that are to coordinate the investigation of general conditions and specific problems peculiar to their regions. The central body has its own monthly publication, from which the nature of the work it is undertaking may best be assessed.34

A second unit of regional organization established in the Third

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FiG. io-The party districts, Gaue.

Reich affords the basis of the whole elaborate structure of the party organization and its greatly varied activity of social welfare. This unit is the Gau. The Gau is the highest (in size and in its chief authority) of a descending series of five areas. The smallest of these is the Block, a unit consisting in the towns of some 40 to 5o families, which are cared for by an appointed official. This is the unit for party organization, winter and other relief, and social welfare. The main

34 Raeumforschung und Raumordnung, the monthly journal of the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft fur Raumforschung. First number, October, I936. The research in hand at present has much in common, in its social and economic aspects, with the human ecology of the social scientists in the United States. The work directed by Professor Hans Weigmann at the Institut fiir Wirtschaftliche Raum- forschung at Rostock is an example. He is directing a thorough examination of the trade and community areas of Pomerania-work that in its method is closely allied to the investigation of trade areas by Edmund de S. Brunner and J. H. Kolb in their work on "Rural Social Trends" (I933) and by the human ecologists of the School of Social Sciences at Chicago.




considerations in forming the party districts (Gaue) were evidently an approximately equal population, a large measure of group feeling, and ease of accessibility to the administrative headquarters.

These two units of organization, the Planungsraum and the Gau, are clearly of fundamental importance in the life of the Third Reich, and in view of the nature of their functions it is of interest to compare them with each other and with the economic regions. The planning regions, it must be remembered, coincide as closely as possible with political units. It will be seen that they also coincide approximately with the economic regions in Silesia, Pomerania, Bavaria, Saxony, and Brandenburg. The Rhine-Main planning region (and Gau) practically coincides with the zone of metropolitan influence of Frankfurt. Elsewhere there are differences, especially in the most populous regions, but even in these the larger economic region approximately coincides with several smaller planning or party units; for example, central Germany or the lower Rhine region.

Thus, the major economic units as interpreted in this article often find expression, as we might have expected, in the new planning regions; and even the smaller units are essentially organic entities, which find frequent expression in group life and organization. It is, indeed, one of the main objectives of the National Socialist government to eradicate the archaic features of its political framework and to establish major regions that can function as effective units of economic and social life, in which the rich regional variations of the nation's cultural heritage may reach their fullest expression. This objective goes further than the efficient organization of the Reich as an economic mechanism. For, it is of interest and importance to note in conclusion, the major cultural entities of Germany, based in origin on the distinctive traits of the Volkssttmme, often closely coincide with the economic regions. And the preservation and development of such group feeling is a fundamental tenet of Nazi philosophy.

Postscript. This article was written before the absorption of Austria into the German State. EDIT. NOTE.



the economic regions of germany

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