State Planning: A German Success Story?

Among planners in Europe, Germany has a reputation for its long tradition of spatial planning. The paper gives a concise overview over spatial planning achievements in Germany at two tiers of decision making, the federal and the state level, using Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin-Brandenburg as examples. The main conclusion from the paper is that spatial planning in Germany has played an important role in guiding spatial development in the country, in reserving space for transport corridors, in maintaining the balanced system of urban settlements and in preserving the natural and cultural environments. Moreover it has contributed much to strengthen the regional identity of the regions (states). Its role as a tool for economic development, however, has been marginal, partly because spatial planning at the federal and state level has never left the internal circles of the planning establishment to become a field of popular and media attention.