National Urban Policy—The Case of West Germany

Abstract

West Germany is a federal republic; responsibilities and powers to guide urban development are shared among governments of three levels — federal, state, and local. There are several sectoral policies such as housing, urban redevelopment, land use planning, environmental controls, historic preservation, transportation, economic development, and spatial planning that add up to what might be called a national urban policy. Most of these sectoral policies are based on intergovernmental grant-in-aid programs planned by a number of coordinating organizations which crosscut federal, state, and local jurisdictions. Although there has been an attempt to achieve more comprehensive, integrated, and coordinated guidance of urban development, the actual pattern of policy implementation remains rather fragmented. Thus, Germany's national urban policy can be better described as the “resultant” of a great number of — more or less well coordinated — sectoral policies and decisions interacting in an unforseen way.