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  • I remember reading or hearing (possibly on here), that while if you removed London's economy from the UK it would obviously tank the whole nation, if you removed Berlin's economy from Germany it would actually get a boost overall. I'm not sure that's true given the tourist money they must get, but the fact that it's even conceivable says something.

    Most of the former GDR bits require funding as I understand it

  • Lots of them have already had a lot, there are very nice roads and bridges in a lot of the former East. Wessis are still paying their Solidaritätszuschlag to the East as well as far as I know.

    Germany does seem like a successful model of decentralisation though, with no real dominant city: media in Hamburg, finance in Frankfurt, industry in the Ruhr, politics and stag weekends in Berlin, and drunk Australians in Munich.

    Meanwhile, what is Birmingham for?

  • Germany does seem like a successful model of decentralisation though, with no real dominant city

    Well, that's really only because of the strange situation that Berlin found itself in after the war. Before the war (and before the Nazis), Berlin was exceedingly dominant, as was Prussia. Berlin is again becoming more dominant by the minute, attracting people from all over the world and obviously because Kohl unwisely moved the capital back there. I also wouldn't say that Germany is very decentralised. There are some small towns which have important industries, e.g. companies that sustain the whole town, but overall, land use is heavily centralised. I'd have to look it up again, but I think Germany has the longest commuting distances of any European country, even longer than much less densely-populated France, because there is virtually nothing going on in weak rural areas. As far as I remember, Britain isn't far behind in these stats--people have to drive/take the train very far away from where they live because there jobs are very badly distributed.

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