Periphere Region – Lernende Regionen am innerdeutschen Rand?

Matthias Pfüller outlines the historical development of central and peripheral regions in the former GDR and former West Germany. Both qualities are found to be relatively persistent. Still, there have been successful attempts at bringing centre and periphery closer together, such as the FRG „educational offensive” in the 1960s and similar efforts in the GDR. Since the 1990s, however, Germany’s inner dissimilarities have not been further reduced, but are rather on the increase. The author doubts that this will change as the EU is extended eastward. Against this background he argues in favour of intensive efforts in basic and further education.