Settlement Structure and Urban Development in the Gdr, 1950–1985

Does the GDR have a settlement structure and cities with a form? Though the pattern of urbanization and urban development over the last 35 years has not lived up to the or to the GDR's own ambitious plans, researchers generally agree that to at least some extent cities and the settlement structure of the GDR are both different from what they once were and from what they might have become under capitalism (Berentsen, 1982; Dwars, 1981; Heineberg, 1979; Richter, 1984; Rugg, 1986; SchEller, 1974, 1986a, 1986b; Wallert, 1974). This paper will review what the ideal socialist city and settlement system in the CDR was to have been and will then discuss actual conditions in the country and why these came to be. In the concluding section explicit comparisons will be made between cities in the CDR and those in the capitalist West.