Professor Löw, is Germany’s population more urban or rural in character?
The level of urbanization in Germany is 88%. This means that the majority of the population lives in towns, or is linked with them in such a way that people have an urban lifestyle. Many people live in suburban areas or villages, but go to work in towns and use their theatres and cinemas. Towns are the crystallization points of social, cultural and professional life.
Are towns experiencing a new popularity?
Yes. The main reason for this is the increased employment of women. Most young families no longer find the model of “living in the suburbs” attractive, where the woman is responsible for raising the children while the man travels into town to work. Parenting and employment can be combined more easily in the city.
You explore the intrinsic logic of cities. What does this imply?
The question “What makes Frankfurt, Munich or Cologne tick?” is quite useful in explaining this work. For instance, we look into what it means to be shaped by a city. What happens to me if I live for a long time as an adult in a city like Cologne, which has a strong working-class outlook and an emphasis on everyday culture, such as the carnival tradition, compared to living in Munich, which has a rural farming background and is characterized by strong fluctuation?
You live in Frankfurt am Main. What makes that city tick?
Frankfurt is a city where active citizen involvement plays a big role. People have a kind of underlying urge to constantly reinvent themselves. That makes Frankfurt very flexible when faced with difficult situations. In contrast to Munich, Frankfurt sees itself more as a hub of an international network, rather than as a locally rooted city. This has a lot to do with its trading and banking tradition.
One of your theses is that today’s cities are competing with each other.
It’s very important for cities to attract businesses and companies and to create good living conditions for their managerial personnel. The second important factor is tourism. The interesting thing about Germany is that the cities have a dual mutual relationship. On the one hand they have to differ individually, but on the other hand they have to offer a range of common factors to gain recognition as attractive cities. Another striking aspect in Germany is that a lot is done to cultivate an identity with one’s own city. This ranges from setting up objects of identification in public spaces to the printing of city slogans on T-shirts.
What kind of town do we need in the coming years?
Germany is currently confronted by demographic change that involves a shrinking population. So above all, it’s important to prevent areas of vacant housing occurring in towns. The second major challenge is to develop a modern architecture that enables identification with the town. It’s important to build aesthetically pleasing structures coupled with a concept of something new.
Can Germany set an example with its urban design strategies?
We can set a good example in terms of social housing, the concept of the city for all and the idea of creating cities that can be experienced as complete entities. But I also think that we have to learn from other cities around the world, for instance from Asia, where people are far more forward-looking, and not so strongly focused on the past.
Martina Löw
The sociologist and urban researcher is a professor at Technische Universität Darmstadt.
