Urban Renewal Policies and Back-to-the-City Migration: The Case of West Germany

Abstract

Efforts at renewal of inner-city residential areas in West Germany are intended to stabilize the population of the central city and to attract suburban residents. In this article I describe migration trends and urban renewal policies in West Germany in order to compare them with trends in the United States. Two surveys—one nationwide and one of suburban residents in the Hamburg region—indicate little willingness to move back to the central city. A third survey, of back-to-the-city movers in Hamburg renewal areas, suggests that urban renewal had little influence on respondents' decisions to move to the inner city. From these and related findings I conclude that both the extent of back-to-the-city migration and the assumed effects of urban renewal on it are overestimated in West Germany.