The Two Germanies: A Modern Geography

480 Pages·1978·18.044 MB·English

by  Roy E. H. Mellor

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A Modern Geography
Roy E.H. Mellor,
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NIAGARA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Copyright © 1978 Roy E. H. Mellor
All rights reserved
First published 1978
Harper & Row Ltd
28 Tavistock Street
London WC2E 7PN
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of
brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Mellor, Roy Egerton Henderson
The Two Germanies.
1. Germany - Economic conditions - 1945 -
I. Title
330.9’43’087 HC286.6
Published in the U.S.A. 1978 by
Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.
Barnes & Noble Import Division
ISBN 0-06-494778-5
ISBN 0-06-494779-3 Pbk
Designed by Richard Dewing ‘Millions’, London
Phototypeset by Tradespools Ltd, Frome, Somerset
Printed by The Pitman Press, Bath, Avon
CONTENTS
Preface V
Introduction vi
Part I The Foundations 1
Chapter 1 The German Lands - The Geographical
Setting 3
Chapter 2 Territorial Evolution from 1815 31
Chapter 3 Economic Change 49
Chapter 4 Population and its Problems 1815-1945 102
Chapter 5 The Hard Years 1945-1950 126
Chapter 6 Economic Collapse and Reconstruction
1945-1950 142
Part II The Two German States of the 1970s 167
Chapter 7 The Two German States: Some
Introductory Comparisons and
Contrasts 169
Chapter 8 The German Federal Republic:
Territory and Population 183
Chapter 9 Industry in the Federal Republic: Energy
208
Supply
Chapter 10 Industry in the Federal Republic: Iron and
Steel, other Metals and Chemicals 226
Chapter 11 Industry in the Federal Republic:
Engineering, Textiles and Food Industries 243
Chapter 12 The Tertiary Sector in the Federal
266
Republic
Chapter 13 Farming and Forestry in the Federal
Republic 281
Chapter 14 Transport in the Federal Republic 308
Chapter 15 The Lander and their Regional Problems in
the Federal Republic 325
Chapter 16 The German Democratic Republic: The
State and its Population 353
Chapter 17 Industry in the German Democratic
Republic 368
Chapter 18 Agriculture and Forestry in the German
Democratic Republic 390
Chapter 19 Transport and the Tertiary Sector in the
German Democratic Republic 405
Chapter 20 Berlin - The Divided City 417
Postscript Prognosis for the Future of the Two
German States 429
Bibliography 432
Index 449
T PREFACE
My interest in Germany began in the years of the Third Reich
and has remained through the great changes that have
followed. Over such a span of time, an observer like myself
becomes much impressed by the importance of the events,
personalities and attitudes that comprise history in
influencing the contemporary: it is this experience that has
coloured the pattern of this text.
It would be difficult to list all the kind people in Britain and
in Germany who have tolerated my inquiry and have tried
to provide the answers I sought over the years - to them all I
say a heartfelt thank you. I am also grateful for help received
from the British Council and from the Carnegie Trust for
Scotland as well as for the opportunity to spend terms in the
Universities of Munster in Westfalen and Bochum.
For secretarial assistance in preparing the manuscript I
greatly appreciate the help of Mrs. Jane Calder, Miss
Christina Morrison, Miss Lily Findlay and Miss
Elizabeth Weir. I have also received valuable assistance from
Dr. Sheila Bain and Mrs. Irene Greig. The maps have been
prepared and drawn by Mr. L. McLean, Mrs. Alison
Sandison and Mr. Philip Glennie - their efforts are much
appreciated. The work would never have been finished
without the untiring assistance of my wife, who has done
so many of the more tedious tasks.
R.E.H.M.
INTRODUCTION
We still speak of Germany without usually qualifying to which Germany we are
referring. Indeed, among the countries of Europe, Germany has been very
much a fluctuating political-geographical unit with a changing pattern of
territorial organization. So great have been the upsets and changes of the last
hundred and fifty years that it is important to appreciate the historical dimen¬
sion in the contemporary German scene. The great territorial upheavals of
Napoleonic times were followed by faltering progress towards political-
geographical unity in the Second Reich of 1871: a truly unitary and centralized
German state appeared for a mere twelve years in the Third Reich. The Second
World War has been followed by the emergence, in an abbreviated overall
territorial framework, of two dimensionally and ideologically contrasting
German states under outside sponsorship.
The nineteenth century, revolutionary in a political, social, economic, and
technological sense, witnessed not only a changing political-geographical
framework in Germany, but also laid the foundation of social and economic
spatial patterns within the borders as drawn in 1815, later modified by both
addition and loss. The dislocation caused by territorial loss after the First
World War brought subsequent adjustments to and compromises with the
new situation, hardly fully assimilated by the spatial structure of society and
economy before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Unconditional
surrender in 1945, again followed by substantial territorial loss, brought a
radical reordering of the nation’s remaining political space. The victorious