Urban Population Change in Large Cities in Germany, 1980-94

The populations of the large cities of the former Federal Republic of Germany (cities with at least 100 000 inhabitants) have been characterised by a continuing downward trend since the beginning of the 1980s. The number of inhabitants, which had already been decreasing during the 1970s, had registered a loss of 3.6 per cent by 1987. Subsequently, however, the trend reversed and, from 1988 to 1994, the population of the large cities in West Germany increased by about 6 per cent. Does this reversal indicate the beginning of a process of reurbanisation and, in cyclic terms, has the urban development changed to more traditional patterns of population redistribution? The increase in population in the large cities around 1990 was rather different from former urbanisation processes. The concentration was a temporary phenomenon and affected predominantly persons of foreign nationality, whereas the German population was still going through a deconcentration process. There are several contributing factors, including the political upheavals in eastern Europe, the accelerated economic restructuring in the 1980s and improvements in communication and transport technology. Globalisation with its worldwide expansion of communication networks also played a role, allocating gateway functions to larger centres in favourable locations. The paper analyses the effects of urban economy and city size on the balances of migration movements of the large cities in West Germany since 1980, especially on the different distribution patterns of the German and foreign populations.