Urban regeneration in Germany: continuation and further development of planning strategies for urban spaces

This chapter provides an overview of the history and main elements of urban regeneration policy in Germany. For more than 50 years, urban regeneration has been a highly regulated and well-funded part of urban planning with a fairly constant development. The various programmes have been continuously supported by national, federal and municipal funds. The more physically oriented regeneration programmes that dominated the 1970s and 1980s were differentiated into special programmes focusing on heritage, centres, social issues, restructuring and others in the 1990s and later. In recent years, urban regeneration policy in Germany has focused on more recent challenges such as climate change, demographic change and social polarisation, all of which have been combined in integrated urban development concepts in line with the objectives of the EU Leipzig Charter.