The regional differentiation of the German Democratic Republic — Structure · dynamics · development

In this paper aspects of the regional differentiation within the German Democratic Republic are presented, and the structure, dynamics and development of this differentiation are shown. The GDR founded after World War II comprises a territory of 108,000 sq.km with 16.7 million inhabitants. At the initial stage, its territorial structure was marked by a polarization between the industrialized regions in the South and the backward agricultural regions of the North and the East. Under socialist condition, however, his regional differentiation has been changed during the last three decades due to various basic and sequent processes. The foundation and development of a nationally-owned sector, particularly in industry, and a cooperative sector in agriculture, the industrialization of former agrarian regions, demographic processes, and a changing settlement structure has contributed to this development. The present regional differentiation is analysed by a new probabilistic approach, and seven macro-regions of the GDR are described.