Does the hinterland benefit from the boom of the large cities? Spatial range and functional differentiation of spillover effects in German urban regions

Abstract

In the last two decades, German major cities have shown an impressive comeback as places to live and work. Using the case of Germany’s 33 largest cities in terms of population and employment and their functional hinterland, this study identifies cities characterised by above-average growth processes
(“boom”) and how this “boom” effects the cities’ hinterlands. A distinction of these “spillover effects” is made between “slop over effects” in the sense of suburbanisation into the closer hinterland and “enrichment effects” in the sense of regional
urbanisation of the wider hinterland. The “spillover effects” are analysed using population and employment dynamics in the cores and the first and second ring of the hinterland. While population development continues to move into the hinterland,
employment growth in the surrounding region is orientated towards existing centres and transportation axes. Theories of regional urbanisation developed in other geographical
contexts, especially in North America, thus can only be transferred to a limited extent to the German urban context with its historically grown small-scale polycentric structure.