Physical Planning in a Federal System: the Case of West Germany

Abstract

Even if, in the early Middle Ages, physical features like navigable rivers, river crossings or mountain passes may have been the main influence on the siting of trade centres as the nuclei of urban life, Germany’s political history has also influenced the development of the spatial structure. The gradual weakening of the emperor’s authority and the corresponding rise of princes and sovereigns ruling independently over their vassals and serfs prevented the evolution of one central authority, and instead resulted in the political and administrative dispersal characteristic of the ‘Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation’. Near the end of the Middle Ages, the empire encompassed a multitude of principalities, kingdoms and city-states, all loosely bound together by the reign of the elected emperor and the political institutions of the Reich. As all these political entities had their own urban centres and jealously competed for trade and cultural amenities, urbanisation spread to many parts of the country.