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Metropolitan regions in Germany

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Metropolitan regions in Germany

The metropolitan regions in Germany are eleven densely populated areas in the Federal Republic of Germany. They comprise the major German cities and their surrounding catchment areas and form the political, commercial and cultural centres of the country. The eleven metropolitan regions in Germany were organised into political units for planning purposes.

Contents

Using a narrower definition of metropolises, only four cities surpass the threshold of at least one million inhabitants within its administrative borders, namely: Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne.

For urban centres outside metropolitan areas, that generate a similar attraction at smaller scale for their region, the concept of the Regiopolis and respectively regiopolitan area or regio was introduced by German professors in 2006.

Metropolitan regions

Sorted alphabetically:

  1. Berlin Metropolitan Region
  2. Bremen/Oldenburg Metropolitan Region
  3. Central German Metropolitan Region
  4. Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region
  5. Hamburg Metropolitan Region
  6. Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region
  7. Munich Metropolitan Region
  8. Nuremberg Metropolitan Region
  9. Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region
  10. Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region (also covers the Cologne Bonn Region)
  11. Stuttgart Metropolitan Region

Big five

The five most important regions, collectively often called the "Big Five", are frequently compared with other European metropolitan areas for investments and market development. They are (from north to south): Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf/Cologne (or collectively Rhine-Ruhr), Frankfurt/Rhine-Main and Munich. Globalization and World Cities Study Group (GaWC) considers Frankfurt and Munich "α" (Alpha) Global Cities, while the others are considered "β" (Beta) global cities.

Each of them forms types of clusters and achieves varying levels of performance in areas such as business activity, human capital, information and technology exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.

  • Frankfurt/Rhine-Main, for its financial economy and human transport
  • Berlin, for its political and cultural importance
  • Hamburg, for its importance in global logistics
  • Munich, for its business, science and technology community
  • Düsseldorf/Cologne/Rhine-Ruhr, for its logistics, technology and industry
  • List

      highest score of all metropolitan regions
      highest score of all metropolitan areas

    References

    Metropolitan regions in Germany Wikipedia