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Spatial patterns of technological change in the G.D.R.
Geoforum, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 19>201. Printed in Great Britain
1990
0
w1cL7185/90 $3 Oo+o.oo 1990 Pergamon Press plc
Spatial Patterns of Technological Change in the G.D.R.*
J. HEINZMANN*
and P. KARRASCH,?
Leipzig, G.D.R.
Abstract:
Innovation is the main source of scientific-technological progress. This brings about various locational changes and regional impacts. But general regional policy in the last 20 years was orientated to well-balanced development. The foundation of ‘combines’ was an important step towards realizing reproduction in a new qualitative dimension based on an improved organizational structure which integrates science, management, production and commerce. This change brought about the growth of branches like microelectronics, software-design and biotechnology, and hence the increased importance of scientific potentials altered the size and hierarchy of key locations in the economy. The regional effects of the strategies and decisions of the combines, based on more technological and organizational aspects, correlate more with social, cultural and infrastructural components. This means that the introduction of new methods and instruments for planning and coordinating regional effects will become a major issue in the near future.
Extensive
Industrialization,
1950-1975
After a short period of rebuilding plants destroyed in World War II, the G.D.R., which had been founded in 1949, embarked on more than two decades of extensive industrialization, As a result of the postwar partition of Germany, several industries-such as metallurgy, heavy engineering, agricultural machinery and shipbuilding-which were necessary for the establishment of an independent national economy of the G.D.R., were completely missing. The building-up of these sectors led to very strong structural changes in the regional pattern of industry. Dynamic shifts in the regional distribution of manufacturing output led to more marked differentiation of inter- and intraregional functional linkages, a process which affected all regions of the country. The key features of regional structural change were as follows. The older industrial agglomerations in the southern G.D.R.-Leipzig-Halle, Karl-Marx-Stadt*This paper was finished on 18 February 1988. iInstitut
fiir Geographie und Geoiikologie Leipzig, AkadeLeipzig, G.D.R.
mie der Wissenschaften der D.D.R.,
Zwickau and Dresden-became regions for the enlargement of industrial capacity, the development of new industrial sites and the establishment of new industries. Examples of this process are the creation of regionally-integrated production systems of browncoal-mining, electric energy generation and large-scale chemicals manufacture in the region around Leipzig and Halle , and the modernization and enlargement of metalworking, electrical, textile and clothing industries in the large and medium-size towns of these agglomerations. A new national energy base was built up in the lessdeveloped eastern part of the country (the Bezirk of Cottbus), using the rich deposits of brown coal: today this area localizes 60% of the fuel and 46% of the electricity output of the G.D.R. Further evidence of industrial dispersion into formerly purely agrarian and socially-backward areas is provided by the location of new medium- and large-scale food, metal and shipbuilding facilities in the east (Be&k of Frankfurt) and north (the Bezirke of Restock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg). In addition, new industrial towns were built on greenfield sites in less developed regions, such as Eisenhiittenstadt (steel) and Schwedt 193
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(chemicals), and these required big social infrastructural investments.
the framework of the following macroregions G.D.R. [MOHS et al. (1984) and Figure l)]:
This relatively long (25year) period of extensive industrialization produced a new regional structure of industry in the G.D .R. which could function as a solid starting-point for the more intensive form of regional policy. That spatial structure can be described within
(I)
Figure 1.
of the
A heterogeneous coastal region which is typified by large-scale agricultural production, large and medium-sized manufacturing plants in the towns of Restock, Stralsund and Greifswald, and key recreational and tourist zones.
Regionalization of the G.D.R.+conomy
and urbanization.
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(IV)
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195
A homogeneous northern agro-industrial region dominated by farm production and specialized industries serving agriculture or processing farm products which are dispersed among medium-sized and small towns. A fairly homogeneous central industrialagrarian region with agro-industrial complexes and important urban-industrial centres dispersed in essentially agrarian hinterlands. A quite homogeneous ‘city region’ consisting of the Berlin metropolitan area itself and two adjacent mesoregions to the east (IVc) and west (IVb). Berlin is the most important industrial centre in the G.D.R. (NB-throughout this paper, ‘Berlin’ refers to East Berlin, the capital of the G.D.R.) The homogeneous industrial region in the eastern brown-coal mining area. A heterogeneous urban-industrial region consisting of the agglomerations of Halle-Leipzig Karl-Marx-Stadt-Zwickau (VIb) , (Via), Dresden (VIc), and a transition region (VId). About 50% of the gross industrial output of the G.D.R. is produced here. A slightly heterogeneous industrial region in the central and southern part of the Western G.D.R. which contains one agro-industrial mesoregion (VIIb) and one highly industrialized mesoregion (VIIc).
Because of the close spatial correspondence between manufacturing and urban structures, quantitative or qualitative changes in industry affect large sections of the population immediately. The dominant position of industry within the national economy of the G.D.R. is demonstrated in Table 1. Moreover, the dispersion * of industry throughout the urban hierarchy not only underlines this fact but also expresses a well-proportioned spatial organization. About 30% of all industry is located in medium-sized towns, another 30% each in large or small towns, and about
Table l.*
1985 Share of industry in: Total productive consumption Total number of employees Total investments Total output of the building industry Total consumption of water Total consumption of electric energy * Source: Statistisches Jahrbuch der DDR, 1986.
73.8% 37.9% 56.1% 27.2% 66.3% 58.3%
8% in bigger villages. This seems to provide a wellbalanced pattern for future progress.
The Transition Development
from Extensive to Intensive
A general basic change has occurred in the national economy of the G.D.R. since the end of the 197Os, namely a shift from extensive to intensive social reproduction. As the same process is occurring in other socialist countries, such as Czechoslovakia and the U.S.S.R., it is necessary here to explain what were the special features to be found in the G.D.R. and what were their particular regional expressions. The Five-Year Plan for 1986-1990 aims at high rates of growth in output, productivity and efficiency. It demands qualitative changes in the material and technological bases of the economy, especially by means of: a high rate of innovation; wide application of high technologies such as microelectronics, flexible automation, nuclear energy, and biotechnology; and the use of new materials. The microelectronics industry is developing into a key branch of the national economy. The manufacture of electronic components and computers is increasing very quickly: for example, in 1980 the G.D.R. made 3095 microcomputers whereas by 1985 the number had risen to 33,505. The Five-Year Plan aims at a saving between 1986 and 1990 of about 2.5-3 billion working hours by the transfer of manpower released by new production technology to other economic and social tasks. As a result, the Plan hopes to achieve an economic growth rate of about 5% per annum, and to do so exclusively through higher labour productivity using technological innovations. This trend had already begun in the early 1980s. It is not easy to measure the regional effects of this new economic policy after such a relatively short time. Nevertheless the following analysis provides a framework for doing so. Between 1970 and 1985 the number of people employed in industry in the G. D. R. increased from 2,855,OOOto 3,236,OOO:this sustained a rise in the proportion of all employees in the industrial sector from 36.8% (1970) to 38.2% (1978), but since then it decreased slowly to 37.8% in 1985. The current demographic structure and economic intensification process mean, however, that both the absolute number and the proportion of people occupied in industry will decrease into the 1990s. But improved levels of qualification and skill in the workforce and a higher level of automation and use of
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196 robots in production are necessary preconditions for sustenance of this trend. At present, most of the workers released from their jobs following rationalization and automation of the existing manufacturing process are needed in the same enterprise for the enlargement of other production lines. In many cases, the introduction of new products or technologies in a factory generates a demand for manpower. But the release of, and demand for, labour do not coincide either in space or time. Thus labour policy in the G.D.R. is directed on the one hand to ensuring stability in the skeleton personnel required for more productive work and, on the other, to encouraging intraregional mobility of labour to new jobs. The process of extensive industrialization was linked to increasing local use of regional resources such as energy, water, raw materials and land. Because some resources are regionally localized and their use means exhausting them, especially in the older industrial agglomerations, policy must take account of the need for restructuring in such regions. Since the late 197Os, statistics have shown some first effects of the transition to the intensive way of production (Figure 2). Despite increasing industrial output, the volume of transported goods and the consumption of electricity
%
have decreased, indicating increased efficiency. How will this policy be continued? The major features of intensive economic and social development in the G.D.R. are as follows:
(1) Further
growth in industrial output is being achieved exclusively by higher labour productivity and technological innovations so that employment in industry will no longer rise. (2) Science-based activities are planned to grow at rates above the average, but this will have a broad effect on the growth rates in all sectors of the national economy. (3) Rapid introduction of technologies to increasing industrial production (e.g. CAD/CAM, robots) will release workers systematically for employment in new lines of production in the same enterprise or for jobs in institutions providing social and technical infrastructure within the same region. (4) Regional resources such as labour, raw materials, natural conditions, the spatial organization of social life, are utilized chiefly as comparative advantages for the development of the dominant, specialized lines of production.
A
200 -
1 : industrial gross productlon 2: productwty
of labour
3: transported
goods
4: Consumption of electricity to 1000 M ind.gross production
Figure 2.
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Effects of intensification.
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(5) For
years extensive industrial development and the establishment of new industrial sites have been linked with the resettlement of workers and erection of new housing estates. A large social programme has now been launched to extend the stock of flats and to modernize old ones in existing centres of production (Table 2). This will result in eliminating an extensive lack of accommodation which has been inhibiting migration in recent years. The improved regional environment will make it possible to mobilize indigenous potentials more readily and to facilitate qualitative improvements in regional economic organization as key forces in regional development. The existing network of industrial sites is dense (6) enough so that industry can function as a decisive factor of development in any region of the country. So, as a rule, expansion of production is achieved by the reconstruction or modernization of existing plants at given sites.
Industrial Effects
Growth
Policy and Its Regional
During the period from 1970 to 1985, gross industrial production increased constantly, but there is much intersectoral variation. There has been a succession of industrial sectors exhibiting the highest rates of Table 2. Newly built flats
1966-1970 1971-197s 19761980 1981-1985 1986-1990
363,982
(21.3 (35.9 (48.5 (58.8 (63.9
608,668 813,127 988,888 1,064,OOo (planned)
Table 3. Index of industrial
flats/1000 flats/l000 flats/1000 flats/l000 flats/1000
inhabitants) inhabitants) inhabitants) inhabitants) inhabitants)
growth from one Five-Year Plan period to the other (Table 3). Nevertheless, electronics has been a leader throughout the period and its growth rate is still rising. In the early 197Os, chemicals dominated growth through new plant construction, but in the 1980s their place was taken by such science-based sectors as microelectronics, communications and information processing, scientific instrument manufacture and precision mechanics, optics and biotechnology. The most recent tendency is for a strong development of machine-tool manufacture, which seems to mark more extensive diffusion of microelectronics in the automation of manufacturing processes. Naturally, these processes affect regions of the G.D.R. in different and multifarious ways because of different existing regional industrial structures and because only a very few new industrial plants are being located at a few places. In recent years, for example, expanded capacity in the microelectronics industry was localized in Berlin and the districts of Frankfurt, Erfurt and Dresden. Accordingly, variations in growth rates by time and sector cause variations in the participation of the regions in processes of economic change (Figure 3). It is true that above-average growth rates occurred in the more agrarian districts of the north and east, and in industrial-agrarian Thuringia, while throughout the whole period the older industrial agglomerations in the south ranked below average. Before 1975, differences were not too evident between the districts but thereafter they rose rapidly: in 1970 there were 21 points between the maximum and minimum, while in 1975 it was 52 and in 1985 95 points. The high growth rates in microelectronics have partly contributed to this regional differentiation. For in-
growth at the end of the Five-Year Plan periods (1970 = 100%~five largest growth rates
1970-1975 Industry total (1) Electronics (2) Production of chemical fibres (3) Plastics industry (4) Machine-building for plastics and rubber industries (5) Data-processing equipment and office-machinery
1970-1980 136 188 186 174
Industry total (1) Electronics (2) Data-processing equipment and office-machinery (3) Machine building for plastics and rubber industries (4) Agricultural machinery
branches with the
1970-1985 173 308 278 266 249
Industry total (1) Electronics (2) Precision mechanics and optics (3) Agricultural machinery
211 616 442 413
(4) Data-processing equipment and office-machinery
393
(5) Machine-tools
344
171 (5) Machine-tools 170
239
Geoforum/Volume
198 Index of Industrial gross productlon by districts
1: 19750970 2: 1980/1970 3: 19870970
Source Statlstlsches Jahrbuchdet DDR 1988
Figure 3. Index of industrial gross production by districts.
stance, recent developments in the district of Frankfurt must be seen in a very close connection with those in Berlin which is the traditional regional centre of electrical engineering in Germany. Today, the industrial structure of Berlin is typified by science-based activities and, currently, capacities for research and development are being enlarged there. Berlin manufactures about 16% of the G.D.R.‘s output of electrical and electronic products, and scientific instruments. The Frankfurt district adjoins the Berlin metropolitan region on the east and has undergone major economic transformation since 1950. It was a dominantly agrarian district and in 1955 37% of its working population were engaged in agriculture, but today it is a mixed industrial and agricultural area: in 1985 29.4% of the labour force worked in industry and only 16.1% in agriculture. The district localizes not only the biggest steel enterprise of the G.D.R. (at Eisenhtittenstadt) and the biggest oil refinery (at
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Schwedt), but also a modern microelectronics industry and the necessary research capacities (in Frankfurt itself). Until the early 197Os, the required skilled labour was obtained by a specific migration policy to recruit workers from the older industrial agglomerations of the south to the new towns and the improved infrastructural investments of Frankfurt. Today, a relatively youthful demographic structure makes it possible to meet the demand for skilled labour newly arising in microelectronics and research with the support of vocational training in the area itself. All the forces changing the regional structure of industry involve processes of urbanization. Not surprisingly, therefore, rapid industrialization in the northern and eastern G.D.R. has been accompanied by more dynamic development of both large and medium-sized towns there than in the southern districts, and is mirrored in an above-average decrease in population in smaller agrarian villages (<2000 inhabitants) (Table 4). Changes in social and settlement structure were greatest in regions with a lower degree of urbanization. The first phase of urbanization in the G.D.R. until the late 1970s led to the growth of medium-sized and large towns. Ruralurban migration was a predominant component in the regional mobility of the population. But by 1980 a limit was reached and the potential for rural areas to supply migrants to sustain the growth of towns was exhausted. In-migration into large and medium-sized towns has now virtually ceased: urbanization has become a qualitative process rooted in city renewal and demographic and social reproductive potentials.
The Formation Organizational
of Combines: Structure
Not Just a New
The period of transition from extensive to intensive economic reproduction is characterized by a fundamental change in the basic organizational structure of industry, construction and transport. All existing enterprises and plants were reorganized into ‘combines’. These are large production concerns consisting of several legally independent enterprises which, in most cases, have a dominantly horizontal structure. There are two basic forms in the G.D.R.: (a) supraregional combines which are subordinate to Ministries of the various industrial sectors; and (b) combines which are an association of chiefly small firms producing consumer goods and which are subordinate to the councils of districts (Bezirke).
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Table 4. Population
Group of districts
199
changes between 1964 and 1982 by size group and group of districts*
(inhabitants:
Large towns >1oo,ooo
Medium-sized towns 2o,ooo-100,000
Small towns 200&20,ooo
Villages c2ooo)
Northern? Central* SouthwesternB Southern11 Berlin
134 121 117 98 110
127 130 113 95 -
98 90 91 88 -
78 83 92 86 -
G.D.R.
108
110
90
84
* Source: 7 Districts $ Districts 0 Districts 11Districts
SCHERF (1985). of Restock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg. of Frankfurt, Potsdam, Cottbus and Magdeburg. of Erfurt, Gera and Suhl. of Dresden, Halle, Karl-Marx-Stadt and Leipzig.
So, nowadays, all enterprises and firms in the G.D.R. are parts of such big combines. The basic idea for establishing this form of industrial organization was to bring together all the processes involved in one closed cycle of reproduction. Thus, combines comprise: enterprises with similar profiles of production, sector specific research and development, important subcontractors, producers of capital and specific electronic equipment, home sales and export firms. One of the aims of the further development of combines is the step-wise creation of relatively closed cycles of reproduction, i.e. vertical structures and interlinkages which are yet to be integrated or established.
Table 5. Combines by industrial
Sector Energy and fuels Metallurgy Chemicals Machinery and motor vehicles Electronics and eletrical engineering Light consumer goods Textiles and clothing Building materials Food processing Construction sector
sectors, 1986* Number of combines 9 7 14 29 18 25 17 4 6 10
Advances in this field are best expressed establishment of combine-owned production ties for microelectronic components.
by the capaci-
In 1985 there were 129 industrial combines subordinate to Ministries in the G.D.R. These were made up of approximately 2500 enterprises and about 35,000 places of production and employment. Figure 4 illustrates the various locations of facilities of one combine in the printing-machinery sector. Combines range in size from 4000 to 70,000 employees while, on average, one combine comprises nine enterprises and about 100 places of production scattered over six ” districts. The development of combines and research and development institutions primarily reflects a process of higher economic concentration and regional centralization. This trend towards increasing polarization corresponds to the experience of other advanced industrial countries. Available data reveal that 42% of ail combines and 58% of the research and development capacities are located in the older, southern industrial agglomerations. A system of key locations has emerged which embraces the sites of combine headquarters, research, development and planning units, leading enterprises and the sites of production of capital and electronic equipment. As a rule, innovation rates in these locations are above the G.D.R. average. In many cases the towns with universities, technical colleges, and institutes of the Academy of Sciences, have been chosen to function as such key technical and manufacturing centres (Table 6).
* Source: Statistisches Jahrbuch der DDR 1986 and Kataiog Leipziger
Messe 1986.
These trends raise the question concerning how the
200
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Figure 4. Combine of VEB Kombinat Polygraph ‘Werner Lamberz’, Leipzig.
dialectically contradictory processes of concentration and decentralization take effect in the G.D.R. Naturally, older industrial and scientific centres in the south are the most dynamic areas economically, with the highest rates of innovation and matching investments to raise the technological level of manufacturing and automation. This brings further investments in infrastructure and factors that influence many
processes in social and cultural life. Yet there is also a trend to modify such centralization and concentration. The first indications are appearing of a regional decentralization process involving the location of combines in areas with a more agrarian structure or in small and medium-sized towns: at present, about 30% of the combines are operating in such places but further research is needed into this trend.
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Table 6. Regional distribution
District Northern Central Southwestern Southern Berlin
A Tendency towards Systems?
201
of combine headquarters, leading enterprises, research and development universities and technical colleges, 1985
Combine headquarters
Research institutions
267 21 61 14
Regional Industrial
and development of the combines as a fundamental element in the G.D.R. economy did not simply change the organizational patterns of industry: it also modified some of the regional structure. New regional planning instruments have to create coordinating strategies for combines and regions. The managers of large combines participate more strongly than before in the creation of favourable conditions for regional industrial systems. For example, the installation of CAD/CAM stations improves regional co-operation. Investigations into the field of data networks show that the communication systems of many combines are very often realized within the framework of their respective local or regional locational system, despite a primarily horizontal organization. Consequently, the first tendencies are occurring towards a successive change to a more vertical organizational structure connected with a higher degree of regionally interconnected systems. These tendencies are promoted by more intensive cooperation between the combines and local scientific institutions in universities, colleges and the Academy of Sciences. For example, many of the modern ‘industrial services’ such as computer-training centres or software centres are organized on a local or regional basis.
4 13 10 44 14
Leading enterprises 3 15 20 61 17
institutions,
and
Universities and colleges
: 20 53 10
This will provide a new field for future industrialgeographic research.
The formation
References
Unfortunately, the period of intensification in the G.D.R. has been too short to allow evaluation of the various processes shaping the formation of local, urban or regional systems. Yet there is evidence of the new tendency for the integration of microelectronics and optic-fibre manufacturing on a regional level in the southwest G.D.R. The core of this system comprises the big combines of Carl Zeiss Jena and Mikroelektronik Erfurt, some enterprises of the Robotron computer-manufacturing combine and the University of Jena. It is possible that these elements will give birth to a new high-tech region in the G.D.R.
HEINZMANN, J. (1984) Neuere Tendenzen in der Industrieentwicklung der DDR und ihre regionalen Wirkungen, In: FORUM, Schriftenreihe des Osterreichischen Instituts fur Raumplanung, Reihe B, Bd. 9, pp. 21-32, B. Reihe (Ed.). HEINZMANN, J. (1985) Territoriale Wirkungsbedingungen des wissenschaftlich-technischen Fortschritts ftir die Standortverteilung der Industrie--eine theoretische Problemstudie, Beitr. Geogr., 32,51-101. HEINZMANN, J. (1986) The impact of innovations on the efficiency of regional policies in the German Democratic Republic, In: Technology and Industrial Change in Europe, pp. 39-48, K.-H. Hottes, E. Wever and H.-U. Weber (Eds). Bochum. HEINZMANN, J. (1987) Zur Berticksichtigung von Innovationstheorien in der industriegeographischen Forschung der DDR, Petermanns geogr. Mitt., 131(3), 171-176. HEINZMANN, J. and KARRASCH, P. (1987) The Zmpact of Technological Change on the Regional Organization of Industry in the German Democratic Republic. IGU Commission on Industrial Change, Krakow Rabka. KARRASCH, P. (1987) Neue Anforderungen an die Industrieentwicklung und ihre territorialen Konsequenzen, In: Wissenschafiliche Mitteilungen des Znstituts fur Geographie wad Geoiikologie, Heft 21/1987, pp. 81-89. AdW der DDR, Leipzig. Katalog Leipziger Messe (1986). LEUPOLT, B. (1987) Industriestruktur der Hauptstadt Berlin, Geogr. Ber., 123(2), 93-102. LUCHT, D. (1985) Anforderungen an die Gestaltung gebietlicher Reproduktionsbedingungen zur Sicherung komplexer Neuerungsvorhaben, Dissertation A, Berlin. MOHS, G. et al. (1984) The regional differentiation of the German Democratic Republic-tructure, dynamics, development, Geo-Journal, 8(l), 7-22. SCHERF, K. (1985) Zu Fragen der Urbanisienmg im Sozialismus-dargestellt am Beispiel der sozialistischen Urbanisierung in der DDR, In: Territorialstruktur und umfassende Zntensivierung, pp. 99-103. Akademie, Berlin. Statistisches Jahrbuch der DDR.
1990
0
w1cL7185/90 $3 Oo+o.oo 1990 Pergamon Press plc
Spatial Patterns of Technological Change in the G.D.R.*
J. HEINZMANN*
and P. KARRASCH,?
Leipzig, G.D.R.
Abstract:
Innovation is the main source of scientific-technological progress. This brings about various locational changes and regional impacts. But general regional policy in the last 20 years was orientated to well-balanced development. The foundation of ‘combines’ was an important step towards realizing reproduction in a new qualitative dimension based on an improved organizational structure which integrates science, management, production and commerce. This change brought about the growth of branches like microelectronics, software-design and biotechnology, and hence the increased importance of scientific potentials altered the size and hierarchy of key locations in the economy. The regional effects of the strategies and decisions of the combines, based on more technological and organizational aspects, correlate more with social, cultural and infrastructural components. This means that the introduction of new methods and instruments for planning and coordinating regional effects will become a major issue in the near future.
Extensive
Industrialization,
1950-1975
After a short period of rebuilding plants destroyed in World War II, the G.D.R., which had been founded in 1949, embarked on more than two decades of extensive industrialization, As a result of the postwar partition of Germany, several industries-such as metallurgy, heavy engineering, agricultural machinery and shipbuilding-which were necessary for the establishment of an independent national economy of the G.D.R., were completely missing. The building-up of these sectors led to very strong structural changes in the regional pattern of industry. Dynamic shifts in the regional distribution of manufacturing output led to more marked differentiation of inter- and intraregional functional linkages, a process which affected all regions of the country. The key features of regional structural change were as follows. The older industrial agglomerations in the southern G.D.R.-Leipzig-Halle, Karl-Marx-Stadt*This paper was finished on 18 February 1988. iInstitut
fiir Geographie und Geoiikologie Leipzig, AkadeLeipzig, G.D.R.
mie der Wissenschaften der D.D.R.,
Zwickau and Dresden-became regions for the enlargement of industrial capacity, the development of new industrial sites and the establishment of new industries. Examples of this process are the creation of regionally-integrated production systems of browncoal-mining, electric energy generation and large-scale chemicals manufacture in the region around Leipzig and Halle , and the modernization and enlargement of metalworking, electrical, textile and clothing industries in the large and medium-size towns of these agglomerations. A new national energy base was built up in the lessdeveloped eastern part of the country (the Bezirk of Cottbus), using the rich deposits of brown coal: today this area localizes 60% of the fuel and 46% of the electricity output of the G.D.R. Further evidence of industrial dispersion into formerly purely agrarian and socially-backward areas is provided by the location of new medium- and large-scale food, metal and shipbuilding facilities in the east (Be&k of Frankfurt) and north (the Bezirke of Restock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg). In addition, new industrial towns were built on greenfield sites in less developed regions, such as Eisenhiittenstadt (steel) and Schwedt 193
194
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(chemicals), and these required big social infrastructural investments.
the framework of the following macroregions G.D.R. [MOHS et al. (1984) and Figure l)]:
This relatively long (25year) period of extensive industrialization produced a new regional structure of industry in the G.D .R. which could function as a solid starting-point for the more intensive form of regional policy. That spatial structure can be described within
(I)
Figure 1.
of the
A heterogeneous coastal region which is typified by large-scale agricultural production, large and medium-sized manufacturing plants in the towns of Restock, Stralsund and Greifswald, and key recreational and tourist zones.
Regionalization of the G.D.R.+conomy
and urbanization.
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(III)
(IV)
09 WI)
(wj
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195
A homogeneous northern agro-industrial region dominated by farm production and specialized industries serving agriculture or processing farm products which are dispersed among medium-sized and small towns. A fairly homogeneous central industrialagrarian region with agro-industrial complexes and important urban-industrial centres dispersed in essentially agrarian hinterlands. A quite homogeneous ‘city region’ consisting of the Berlin metropolitan area itself and two adjacent mesoregions to the east (IVc) and west (IVb). Berlin is the most important industrial centre in the G.D.R. (NB-throughout this paper, ‘Berlin’ refers to East Berlin, the capital of the G.D.R.) The homogeneous industrial region in the eastern brown-coal mining area. A heterogeneous urban-industrial region consisting of the agglomerations of Halle-Leipzig Karl-Marx-Stadt-Zwickau (VIb) , (Via), Dresden (VIc), and a transition region (VId). About 50% of the gross industrial output of the G.D.R. is produced here. A slightly heterogeneous industrial region in the central and southern part of the Western G.D.R. which contains one agro-industrial mesoregion (VIIb) and one highly industrialized mesoregion (VIIc).
Because of the close spatial correspondence between manufacturing and urban structures, quantitative or qualitative changes in industry affect large sections of the population immediately. The dominant position of industry within the national economy of the G.D.R. is demonstrated in Table 1. Moreover, the dispersion * of industry throughout the urban hierarchy not only underlines this fact but also expresses a well-proportioned spatial organization. About 30% of all industry is located in medium-sized towns, another 30% each in large or small towns, and about
Table l.*
1985 Share of industry in: Total productive consumption Total number of employees Total investments Total output of the building industry Total consumption of water Total consumption of electric energy * Source: Statistisches Jahrbuch der DDR, 1986.
73.8% 37.9% 56.1% 27.2% 66.3% 58.3%
8% in bigger villages. This seems to provide a wellbalanced pattern for future progress.
The Transition Development
from Extensive to Intensive
A general basic change has occurred in the national economy of the G.D.R. since the end of the 197Os, namely a shift from extensive to intensive social reproduction. As the same process is occurring in other socialist countries, such as Czechoslovakia and the U.S.S.R., it is necessary here to explain what were the special features to be found in the G.D.R. and what were their particular regional expressions. The Five-Year Plan for 1986-1990 aims at high rates of growth in output, productivity and efficiency. It demands qualitative changes in the material and technological bases of the economy, especially by means of: a high rate of innovation; wide application of high technologies such as microelectronics, flexible automation, nuclear energy, and biotechnology; and the use of new materials. The microelectronics industry is developing into a key branch of the national economy. The manufacture of electronic components and computers is increasing very quickly: for example, in 1980 the G.D.R. made 3095 microcomputers whereas by 1985 the number had risen to 33,505. The Five-Year Plan aims at a saving between 1986 and 1990 of about 2.5-3 billion working hours by the transfer of manpower released by new production technology to other economic and social tasks. As a result, the Plan hopes to achieve an economic growth rate of about 5% per annum, and to do so exclusively through higher labour productivity using technological innovations. This trend had already begun in the early 1980s. It is not easy to measure the regional effects of this new economic policy after such a relatively short time. Nevertheless the following analysis provides a framework for doing so. Between 1970 and 1985 the number of people employed in industry in the G. D. R. increased from 2,855,OOOto 3,236,OOO:this sustained a rise in the proportion of all employees in the industrial sector from 36.8% (1970) to 38.2% (1978), but since then it decreased slowly to 37.8% in 1985. The current demographic structure and economic intensification process mean, however, that both the absolute number and the proportion of people occupied in industry will decrease into the 1990s. But improved levels of qualification and skill in the workforce and a higher level of automation and use of
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196 robots in production are necessary preconditions for sustenance of this trend. At present, most of the workers released from their jobs following rationalization and automation of the existing manufacturing process are needed in the same enterprise for the enlargement of other production lines. In many cases, the introduction of new products or technologies in a factory generates a demand for manpower. But the release of, and demand for, labour do not coincide either in space or time. Thus labour policy in the G.D.R. is directed on the one hand to ensuring stability in the skeleton personnel required for more productive work and, on the other, to encouraging intraregional mobility of labour to new jobs. The process of extensive industrialization was linked to increasing local use of regional resources such as energy, water, raw materials and land. Because some resources are regionally localized and their use means exhausting them, especially in the older industrial agglomerations, policy must take account of the need for restructuring in such regions. Since the late 197Os, statistics have shown some first effects of the transition to the intensive way of production (Figure 2). Despite increasing industrial output, the volume of transported goods and the consumption of electricity
%
have decreased, indicating increased efficiency. How will this policy be continued? The major features of intensive economic and social development in the G.D.R. are as follows:
(1) Further
growth in industrial output is being achieved exclusively by higher labour productivity and technological innovations so that employment in industry will no longer rise. (2) Science-based activities are planned to grow at rates above the average, but this will have a broad effect on the growth rates in all sectors of the national economy. (3) Rapid introduction of technologies to increasing industrial production (e.g. CAD/CAM, robots) will release workers systematically for employment in new lines of production in the same enterprise or for jobs in institutions providing social and technical infrastructure within the same region. (4) Regional resources such as labour, raw materials, natural conditions, the spatial organization of social life, are utilized chiefly as comparative advantages for the development of the dominant, specialized lines of production.
A
200 -
1 : industrial gross productlon 2: productwty
of labour
3: transported
goods
4: Consumption of electricity to 1000 M ind.gross production
Figure 2.
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Effects of intensification.
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197
(5) For
years extensive industrial development and the establishment of new industrial sites have been linked with the resettlement of workers and erection of new housing estates. A large social programme has now been launched to extend the stock of flats and to modernize old ones in existing centres of production (Table 2). This will result in eliminating an extensive lack of accommodation which has been inhibiting migration in recent years. The improved regional environment will make it possible to mobilize indigenous potentials more readily and to facilitate qualitative improvements in regional economic organization as key forces in regional development. The existing network of industrial sites is dense (6) enough so that industry can function as a decisive factor of development in any region of the country. So, as a rule, expansion of production is achieved by the reconstruction or modernization of existing plants at given sites.
Industrial Effects
Growth
Policy and Its Regional
During the period from 1970 to 1985, gross industrial production increased constantly, but there is much intersectoral variation. There has been a succession of industrial sectors exhibiting the highest rates of Table 2. Newly built flats
1966-1970 1971-197s 19761980 1981-1985 1986-1990
363,982
(21.3 (35.9 (48.5 (58.8 (63.9
608,668 813,127 988,888 1,064,OOo (planned)
Table 3. Index of industrial
flats/1000 flats/l000 flats/1000 flats/l000 flats/1000
inhabitants) inhabitants) inhabitants) inhabitants) inhabitants)
growth from one Five-Year Plan period to the other (Table 3). Nevertheless, electronics has been a leader throughout the period and its growth rate is still rising. In the early 197Os, chemicals dominated growth through new plant construction, but in the 1980s their place was taken by such science-based sectors as microelectronics, communications and information processing, scientific instrument manufacture and precision mechanics, optics and biotechnology. The most recent tendency is for a strong development of machine-tool manufacture, which seems to mark more extensive diffusion of microelectronics in the automation of manufacturing processes. Naturally, these processes affect regions of the G.D.R. in different and multifarious ways because of different existing regional industrial structures and because only a very few new industrial plants are being located at a few places. In recent years, for example, expanded capacity in the microelectronics industry was localized in Berlin and the districts of Frankfurt, Erfurt and Dresden. Accordingly, variations in growth rates by time and sector cause variations in the participation of the regions in processes of economic change (Figure 3). It is true that above-average growth rates occurred in the more agrarian districts of the north and east, and in industrial-agrarian Thuringia, while throughout the whole period the older industrial agglomerations in the south ranked below average. Before 1975, differences were not too evident between the districts but thereafter they rose rapidly: in 1970 there were 21 points between the maximum and minimum, while in 1975 it was 52 and in 1985 95 points. The high growth rates in microelectronics have partly contributed to this regional differentiation. For in-
growth at the end of the Five-Year Plan periods (1970 = 100%~five largest growth rates
1970-1975 Industry total (1) Electronics (2) Production of chemical fibres (3) Plastics industry (4) Machine-building for plastics and rubber industries (5) Data-processing equipment and office-machinery
1970-1980 136 188 186 174
Industry total (1) Electronics (2) Data-processing equipment and office-machinery (3) Machine building for plastics and rubber industries (4) Agricultural machinery
branches with the
1970-1985 173 308 278 266 249
Industry total (1) Electronics (2) Precision mechanics and optics (3) Agricultural machinery
211 616 442 413
(4) Data-processing equipment and office-machinery
393
(5) Machine-tools
344
171 (5) Machine-tools 170
239
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198 Index of Industrial gross productlon by districts
1: 19750970 2: 1980/1970 3: 19870970
Source Statlstlsches Jahrbuchdet DDR 1988
Figure 3. Index of industrial gross production by districts.
stance, recent developments in the district of Frankfurt must be seen in a very close connection with those in Berlin which is the traditional regional centre of electrical engineering in Germany. Today, the industrial structure of Berlin is typified by science-based activities and, currently, capacities for research and development are being enlarged there. Berlin manufactures about 16% of the G.D.R.‘s output of electrical and electronic products, and scientific instruments. The Frankfurt district adjoins the Berlin metropolitan region on the east and has undergone major economic transformation since 1950. It was a dominantly agrarian district and in 1955 37% of its working population were engaged in agriculture, but today it is a mixed industrial and agricultural area: in 1985 29.4% of the labour force worked in industry and only 16.1% in agriculture. The district localizes not only the biggest steel enterprise of the G.D.R. (at Eisenhtittenstadt) and the biggest oil refinery (at
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Schwedt), but also a modern microelectronics industry and the necessary research capacities (in Frankfurt itself). Until the early 197Os, the required skilled labour was obtained by a specific migration policy to recruit workers from the older industrial agglomerations of the south to the new towns and the improved infrastructural investments of Frankfurt. Today, a relatively youthful demographic structure makes it possible to meet the demand for skilled labour newly arising in microelectronics and research with the support of vocational training in the area itself. All the forces changing the regional structure of industry involve processes of urbanization. Not surprisingly, therefore, rapid industrialization in the northern and eastern G.D.R. has been accompanied by more dynamic development of both large and medium-sized towns there than in the southern districts, and is mirrored in an above-average decrease in population in smaller agrarian villages (<2000 inhabitants) (Table 4). Changes in social and settlement structure were greatest in regions with a lower degree of urbanization. The first phase of urbanization in the G.D.R. until the late 1970s led to the growth of medium-sized and large towns. Ruralurban migration was a predominant component in the regional mobility of the population. But by 1980 a limit was reached and the potential for rural areas to supply migrants to sustain the growth of towns was exhausted. In-migration into large and medium-sized towns has now virtually ceased: urbanization has become a qualitative process rooted in city renewal and demographic and social reproductive potentials.
The Formation Organizational
of Combines: Structure
Not Just a New
The period of transition from extensive to intensive economic reproduction is characterized by a fundamental change in the basic organizational structure of industry, construction and transport. All existing enterprises and plants were reorganized into ‘combines’. These are large production concerns consisting of several legally independent enterprises which, in most cases, have a dominantly horizontal structure. There are two basic forms in the G.D.R.: (a) supraregional combines which are subordinate to Ministries of the various industrial sectors; and (b) combines which are an association of chiefly small firms producing consumer goods and which are subordinate to the councils of districts (Bezirke).
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Table 4. Population
Group of districts
199
changes between 1964 and 1982 by size group and group of districts*
(inhabitants:
Large towns >1oo,ooo
Medium-sized towns 2o,ooo-100,000
Small towns 200&20,ooo
Villages c2ooo)
Northern? Central* SouthwesternB Southern11 Berlin
134 121 117 98 110
127 130 113 95 -
98 90 91 88 -
78 83 92 86 -
G.D.R.
108
110
90
84
* Source: 7 Districts $ Districts 0 Districts 11Districts
SCHERF (1985). of Restock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg. of Frankfurt, Potsdam, Cottbus and Magdeburg. of Erfurt, Gera and Suhl. of Dresden, Halle, Karl-Marx-Stadt and Leipzig.
So, nowadays, all enterprises and firms in the G.D.R. are parts of such big combines. The basic idea for establishing this form of industrial organization was to bring together all the processes involved in one closed cycle of reproduction. Thus, combines comprise: enterprises with similar profiles of production, sector specific research and development, important subcontractors, producers of capital and specific electronic equipment, home sales and export firms. One of the aims of the further development of combines is the step-wise creation of relatively closed cycles of reproduction, i.e. vertical structures and interlinkages which are yet to be integrated or established.
Table 5. Combines by industrial
Sector Energy and fuels Metallurgy Chemicals Machinery and motor vehicles Electronics and eletrical engineering Light consumer goods Textiles and clothing Building materials Food processing Construction sector
sectors, 1986* Number of combines 9 7 14 29 18 25 17 4 6 10
Advances in this field are best expressed establishment of combine-owned production ties for microelectronic components.
by the capaci-
In 1985 there were 129 industrial combines subordinate to Ministries in the G.D.R. These were made up of approximately 2500 enterprises and about 35,000 places of production and employment. Figure 4 illustrates the various locations of facilities of one combine in the printing-machinery sector. Combines range in size from 4000 to 70,000 employees while, on average, one combine comprises nine enterprises and about 100 places of production scattered over six ” districts. The development of combines and research and development institutions primarily reflects a process of higher economic concentration and regional centralization. This trend towards increasing polarization corresponds to the experience of other advanced industrial countries. Available data reveal that 42% of ail combines and 58% of the research and development capacities are located in the older, southern industrial agglomerations. A system of key locations has emerged which embraces the sites of combine headquarters, research, development and planning units, leading enterprises and the sites of production of capital and electronic equipment. As a rule, innovation rates in these locations are above the G.D.R. average. In many cases the towns with universities, technical colleges, and institutes of the Academy of Sciences, have been chosen to function as such key technical and manufacturing centres (Table 6).
* Source: Statistisches Jahrbuch der DDR 1986 and Kataiog Leipziger
Messe 1986.
These trends raise the question concerning how the
200
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Figure 4. Combine of VEB Kombinat Polygraph ‘Werner Lamberz’, Leipzig.
dialectically contradictory processes of concentration and decentralization take effect in the G.D.R. Naturally, older industrial and scientific centres in the south are the most dynamic areas economically, with the highest rates of innovation and matching investments to raise the technological level of manufacturing and automation. This brings further investments in infrastructure and factors that influence many
processes in social and cultural life. Yet there is also a trend to modify such centralization and concentration. The first indications are appearing of a regional decentralization process involving the location of combines in areas with a more agrarian structure or in small and medium-sized towns: at present, about 30% of the combines are operating in such places but further research is needed into this trend.
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Table 6. Regional distribution
District Northern Central Southwestern Southern Berlin
A Tendency towards Systems?
201
of combine headquarters, leading enterprises, research and development universities and technical colleges, 1985
Combine headquarters
Research institutions
267 21 61 14
Regional Industrial
and development of the combines as a fundamental element in the G.D.R. economy did not simply change the organizational patterns of industry: it also modified some of the regional structure. New regional planning instruments have to create coordinating strategies for combines and regions. The managers of large combines participate more strongly than before in the creation of favourable conditions for regional industrial systems. For example, the installation of CAD/CAM stations improves regional co-operation. Investigations into the field of data networks show that the communication systems of many combines are very often realized within the framework of their respective local or regional locational system, despite a primarily horizontal organization. Consequently, the first tendencies are occurring towards a successive change to a more vertical organizational structure connected with a higher degree of regionally interconnected systems. These tendencies are promoted by more intensive cooperation between the combines and local scientific institutions in universities, colleges and the Academy of Sciences. For example, many of the modern ‘industrial services’ such as computer-training centres or software centres are organized on a local or regional basis.
4 13 10 44 14
Leading enterprises 3 15 20 61 17
institutions,
and
Universities and colleges
: 20 53 10
This will provide a new field for future industrialgeographic research.
The formation
References
Unfortunately, the period of intensification in the G.D.R. has been too short to allow evaluation of the various processes shaping the formation of local, urban or regional systems. Yet there is evidence of the new tendency for the integration of microelectronics and optic-fibre manufacturing on a regional level in the southwest G.D.R. The core of this system comprises the big combines of Carl Zeiss Jena and Mikroelektronik Erfurt, some enterprises of the Robotron computer-manufacturing combine and the University of Jena. It is possible that these elements will give birth to a new high-tech region in the G.D.R.
HEINZMANN, J. (1984) Neuere Tendenzen in der Industrieentwicklung der DDR und ihre regionalen Wirkungen, In: FORUM, Schriftenreihe des Osterreichischen Instituts fur Raumplanung, Reihe B, Bd. 9, pp. 21-32, B. Reihe (Ed.). HEINZMANN, J. (1985) Territoriale Wirkungsbedingungen des wissenschaftlich-technischen Fortschritts ftir die Standortverteilung der Industrie--eine theoretische Problemstudie, Beitr. Geogr., 32,51-101. HEINZMANN, J. (1986) The impact of innovations on the efficiency of regional policies in the German Democratic Republic, In: Technology and Industrial Change in Europe, pp. 39-48, K.-H. Hottes, E. Wever and H.-U. Weber (Eds). Bochum. HEINZMANN, J. (1987) Zur Berticksichtigung von Innovationstheorien in der industriegeographischen Forschung der DDR, Petermanns geogr. Mitt., 131(3), 171-176. HEINZMANN, J. and KARRASCH, P. (1987) The Zmpact of Technological Change on the Regional Organization of Industry in the German Democratic Republic. IGU Commission on Industrial Change, Krakow Rabka. KARRASCH, P. (1987) Neue Anforderungen an die Industrieentwicklung und ihre territorialen Konsequenzen, In: Wissenschafiliche Mitteilungen des Znstituts fur Geographie wad Geoiikologie, Heft 21/1987, pp. 81-89. AdW der DDR, Leipzig. Katalog Leipziger Messe (1986). LEUPOLT, B. (1987) Industriestruktur der Hauptstadt Berlin, Geogr. Ber., 123(2), 93-102. LUCHT, D. (1985) Anforderungen an die Gestaltung gebietlicher Reproduktionsbedingungen zur Sicherung komplexer Neuerungsvorhaben, Dissertation A, Berlin. MOHS, G. et al. (1984) The regional differentiation of the German Democratic Republic-tructure, dynamics, development, Geo-Journal, 8(l), 7-22. SCHERF, K. (1985) Zu Fragen der Urbanisienmg im Sozialismus-dargestellt am Beispiel der sozialistischen Urbanisierung in der DDR, In: Territorialstruktur und umfassende Zntensivierung, pp. 99-103. Akademie, Berlin. Statistisches Jahrbuch der DDR.