Quote (dro94 @ 23 Aug 2024 00:38)
I don't believe income disparity in Germany between previously industrial regions and the regions with strong service sectors is anywhere near as evident as in the UK. If you've got some hard evidence and/or articles to read, I'd be interested to learn more.
The main economic cleavages in Germany are geographcy- and history-based: between West and East (this is the most salient cleavage) and between the more rural North and the more industrial South.
There are barely any de- or post-industrialized regions on the territory of former West Germany. Places have either always been rural (the northern plains) or service-based (Berlin, Hamburg), or have been and remain industrial (the entire south). The only West German place with significant deindustrialization is the Ruhr region, which ressembles the Midlands and Northern England.
What sets Germany ecnomically apart from many other countries are the extremely strong and spread out small- and medium-sized businesses ("Mittelstand") which are found even in rural and midsized towns all across the south-western half of the country. These SMBs diminish the economic contrast between urban centers and periphery which has reached dangerous levels in other countries (e.g. France, Spain, the US).
The economic disparity between former West and East Germany is stark, based on the Eastern states lacking the industrial base and entrepreneurial culture of the West. Most of the industry of the GDR was uncompetitive and got liquidated during the 90s. The East as a whole has been on an upward trajectory since then, bolstered in no small part by massive government transfers, but the local variation is enormous. Some places in East Germany are absolutely booming and even attracting new, state of the art tech factories (e.g. Intel in Dresden, Tesla near Berlin) while many rural places in East Germany remain derelict and depressed.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 23 2024 01:01pm