Germany 1949 - A Chance For Immediate Reorganization? Walter Christaller & Werner Münchheimer
As should be evident by earlier posts in this little collection of mine, the time between 1945 and 1956 was an especially productive time for German state reorganization proposals due to the non-existance of an official German state and the very young age of the Bundesrepublik, which after its founding even founded and maintained a "Sachverständigen-Ausschuss für die Neugliederung des Bundesgebietes" (expert panel for the restructuring of the federal territory), headed by Hans Luther from 1952 to 1955.
However today I want to focus on two proposals made in 1949. My "only" source for these is in fact the author of one of these two proposals.
First, let's look at a proposal made by Walter Christaller. He was a prolific German geographer, responsible for the Central Place Theory. It states, oversimplified, that settlements that are within a reasonable distance to many other settlements will grow and be able to provide specific services to the surrounding settlements, thus becoming the central place for the grouping, and that this system can scale upwards, to a limited extent. Christaller and a close associate of his, Emil Meynen, were central in the formation of the field of central planning and were very productive after 1945, working intensely first with the American military administration and later with the West German state. After both of their deaths however it came to light that both were actively working with the Nazis to first incorporate Austria into Germany and later, especially in the case of Christaller, to plan the colonization of the "Ostgebiete" within former Poland and the Soviet Union. As a result both of their reputation has been significantly tarnished.
But, after this little bit of a bummer, let's look at Christaller's actual proposal!
This proposal is heavily inspired by Christaller's ideal of the central place. It seeks to divide Germany into eight regions, which are then to be subdivided into states (or Länder). as well as smaller units such as provinces, as well as Gaue and Kreise (both can translate to districts, also Gau as a term for administrations is basically non-existant now due to Nazi connotations, with it only having informal usage in the Austrian state of Salzburg today). This map however only shows the Länder, but it marks Provinz and Gau capitals.
The goal of this proposal was to create regions and Länder based on "geographic-scientific" criteria, aiming to provide administrative units that are economically cohesive. Christaller however was vague on the level of administrative powers each unit should have, which could very well mean that the Länder in his proposal would be more akin to administrative regions, or maybe the regions would function as plenar bodies for the more important Länder.
The proposed regions (with their incredibly bland names) and states are, with their estimated 1939 population in millions:
- Nordwestdeutschland [8.35] with the states of Hamburg-Unterelbe [2.35], Schleswig-Holstein [1.35], Bremen-Friesland [2.05], and Hannover [2.6]
- Westdeutschland [13.1], with the states of Köln-Aachen [2.85], Niederrhein-Berg [3.2], Ruhrstädte [3.5}, Westfalen [2.7], and Trier-Koblenz [0.7]
- West-Mitteldeutschland [5.3], with the states Rhein-Main [3.3], Hessen-Kassel [1.25], and Würzburg or Unterfranken [0.75]
- Saarland, consisting out of only one state [1.0]
- Südwestdeutschland [6.8], with the states of Pfalz [2.3], Baden [0.95], Württemberg or Neckarschwaben [2.45], and Bodensee or Oberschwaben [1.1]
- Süddeutschland or Bayern [5.8], with the states of Oberbayern [2.5], Niederbayern [1.45], and Nordbayern or Ostfranken [1.85]
- Ost-Mitteldeutschland [11.4], with the states of Sachsen-Leipzig [2.45], Sachsen-Dresden [2.45], Erzgebirge-Vogtland [2.45], Thüringen [2.0], and Sachsen-Anhalt [2.05]
- Norddeutschland [8.0] with the states of Berlin Stadt [4.9], Mark Brandenburg [1.65], and Mecklenburg-Pommern [1.45] with the option of splitting it into Mecklenburg [1.05] and Vorpommern [0.4]
Due to the unlikely immediate reunification of Germany, a West German state according to Christaller would only have six regions and twenty states. The disparity between the various Länder specifically is obvious. In his own comments on Christaller's proposal, Werner Münchheimer in particular compares Rhein-Main and Würzburg with each other, since the latter is less than half as big as the former and has less than a quarter of its population, but they share the same administrative designation of a Land. I also find the fact that only two city states would exist very interesting. An enlarged Berlin and the connected urban areas of the Ruhr from Duisburg to Dortmund (and from the looks of things Kamen, Bergkamen, and Lünen, but not Unna and Hamm) are definitely
choices.
I also wanna point out, because that's my neck of the woods, that apparently the city of Hagen and the southern bits of the modern Märkischer Kreis centered around the towns of Altena and Lüdenscheid were to be part of Niederrhein-Berg, while the district of Iserlohn (hometown mentioned!) would be part of Westfalen. Which, to be fair, isn't the strangest, because if you look at Catholic dioceses in Germany, you'll find that the Kreis Altena fell under the bishopric of Essen (part of the archbishopric of Cologne), while the Kreis Iserlohn fell under Paderborn. But, you know, all three of these cities were Westphalian according to the Prussians. In general these proposals don't take the historic state borders as gospel. Examples for that are the partition of Bavarian Swabia
The special status granted to the Saarland is an odd concession to the geopolitics of the era when the proposal doesn't make the same concession with the soon-to-be GDR. Though from the looks of things besides maybe some parts of southern Thuringia the borders between Ost-Mitteldeutschland and Norddeutschland and the "West German" regions seems to follow the line separating the Trizone from the Soviet zone.
The second proposal is one by one Werner Münchheimer. Now he is a bit more of an enigma, with me only being able to find scattered bits of info about the man. Apparently later in life he would become Oberregierungsrat within the Federal Ministry of All-German Affairs (from 1969 onwards Federal Ministry of Intra-German Relations, and abolished in 1991), which allowed him to sometimes be part of West German UN delegations, but besides that and a collection of essays from the 40s to early 60s, I can't find anything else on him.
In this 1949 proposal of his, created for his work "Die Neugliederung des Bundesgebiets. Grundlagen - Kritik - Ziele und die Pläne zur "Reichsreform" von 1919-1945" as part of the Frankfurter Geographische Hefte No. 23 (the only source for this post by the way), we see his suggestions on how to restructure the nascent German Republic, which are explicitly in dialogue with the Christaller proposal above.
As you can see, he proposes to divide Germany, in the borders of 1937, into seven states, subdivided into thirty-nine governmental districts. He also includes an intermediary judicial-only subdivision system of eighteen Oberlandesgerichtsbezirke (Higher Court Districts). The district borders aren't shown (in favor of historic district lines), but the capitals are marked and the booklet contains names for these divisions, giving a better clue at where the borders would lie.
Münchheimer, when creating this proposal, followed the principle that each German state should be administratively cohesive and roughly equal.
The western states and their districts are, with their capital listed in brackets:
- Bayern (München) with the districts of Oberbayern (München), Niederbayern (Regensburg), Lechschwaben (Augsburg), Mittelfranken (Nürnberg), Mainfranken (Würzburg), and Oberpfalz (Weiden)
- Hessen (Frankfurt), with the districts of Kurhessen (Kassel), Nassau-Frankfurt (Darmstadt), Rheinhessen (Mainz), the Free City of Frankfurt, and Saarpfalz (Saarbrücken)
- Niederrhein (Köln), with the districts of Berg (Düsseldorf), Jülich (Aachen), Köln (Köln), Moselland (Koblenz), Ruhrland (Essen), Sauerland (Wuppertal), and Münsterland (Münster)
- Niedersachsen (Hannover), with the districts Hannover-Braunschweig (Braunschweig), Oldenburg-Bremen (Oldenburg), the Free City of Bremen, Emsfriesland (Emden), Engern (Bielefeld), Niederelbe-Hamburg (Lüneburg), the Free City of Hamburg, and Schleswig-Holstein (Kiel)
- Schwaben (Stuttgart), with the districts of Baden (Freiburg), Kurpfalz (Mannheim), Alt-Württemberg (Stuttgart), Oberschwaben (Ulm), and Bodenseeland (Konstanz)
Meanwhile the eastern states are (with presumed district capitals):
- Obersachsen (Leipzig) with district capitals in Erfurt, Magdeburg, Plauen, Leipzig, Dresden, and Görlitz
- Brandenburg (Berlin) with district capitals in Berlin, Wittenberge, Frankfurt a. d. Oder, Rostock, Stettin/Szczecin, Schneidemühl/Piła, and Köslin/Koszalin
- Schlesien (Breslau, now WrocławI) with district capitals in Breslau/Wrocław, Schweidnitz/Świdnica, Oppeln/Opole, and Gleiwitz/Gliwice
- Ostpreussen (Königsberg) with district capitals in Königsberg/Kaliningrad, Elbing/Elbląg, Insterburg/Chernyakhovsk, and Allenstein/Olsztyn
The borders drawn here are much more precise, which would allow for an easy reconstruction of at least the state borders. It also shows that Münchheimer, when drawing the state borders, didn't follow the occupation zone lines in several places. Münchheimer also chose to include the territories that were ceded to Poland and the Soviet Union, based on earlier declarations about the occupation applying to all of Germany in the borders of January 1st 1937. Still he concedes that most likely this proposal would only be applied to the Trizone/the future Federal Republic of Germany, and the changes required to these state borders as a result would be minor.
Some noteworthy decisions, to me, include: the cession of Engern (including cities like Minden and Bielefeld) to Niedersachsen, the partition of the Bavarian Palatinate between Schwaben and Hessen, the partition of Bavarian Swabia between Bayern and Schwaben (similar to Christaller), and the district-less status being "restored" to Frankfurt.
I also find the Sauerland district to be weird. If it includes Wuppertal as its capital, that implies that the Bergisches Land is part of it, too, or at least for the most part. It would at least include the Bergisches Städtedreieck (which besides Wuppertal also includes Solingen and Remscheid). And then it'd cover Ennepetal and Hagen, before reaching the Sauerland with Iserlohn and Altena marking the first two districts that are actually part of that region. Also with Wuppertal and Essen removed from it, the district Berg seems very truncated and excludes several areas that are part of the historic Duchy of Berg.
Addendum: My scanner ain't great, so the quality of these two images is sadly bad. I hope that I can find someone with a better scanner, ideally one that also allows for DIN A3-sized paper, so that I can eventually produce better scans, especially of the Münchheimer map, since it is part of a large poster covering nine different proposals. However, without cutting it up, I can't easily scan it right now, so this will have to do. The Christaller proposal is printed on the interior of the booklet's paperback cover, hence why it looks so drastically different in terms of quality.
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