Facts Halberstadt

Selected Key Data

Population

The population decline, which had already begun during the GDR era, progressed by contrast more slowly than in other cities in Saxony-Anhalt. Nevertheless, in the period from 1990 to 2000, the city lost 11 per cent of its inhabitants, irrespective of incorporations. While the population of the city of Halberstadt in 1989 was 53,086, this had dropped to 42,939 by 2009. Halberstadt’s population was at its highest in 1981: 47,266.

Municipal Boundaries

Because of increased suburbanisation from the early 1990s, the cities have lost a considerable proportion of their inhabitants and tax revenues to the surrounding communities. In order to dilute the impact of these losses, a gradual process of incorporation has increased the municipal areas in size, sometimes significantly so.

The coloured shape on the map symbolises the expansion of the city in 1990, the outer line shows the boarder of the municipal area of 2010.

Housing Situation

By the end of 1999, 3,550 flats were empty – 16 per cent of the total housing stock. With funding from the federal Urban Planning Programme for the Protection of Monuments many of the timber frame houses so characteristic of the city, built in the traditional Lower Saxony style, were exemplarily renovated.

In 2001/2001, Halberstadt won the gold medal in the national competition “Leben in historischen Innenstädten und Ortskernen” (Life in historic inner cities and town centres). In 2001 Halberstadt drafted an urban development concept. This aimed to continue to strengthen the centre and to analyse the future viability and strengths and weaknesses of the remaining districts, to implement measures for improvement and demolition and to counteract a spatial expansion of the urban area. Buildings were torn down on the peripheries, and the residential area known as Am Nordring became the largest redevelopment site in Saxony-Anhalt. Here, with two exceptions, the entire stock of 970 flats was demolished at short notice. The housing associations concentrated on modernising and improving their housing stock in the city centre.

Housing Situation in Halberstadt (2/2010):
Housing Stock: 22,300
Surplus Housing: 2,100 / 13 Percent 
Housing Demolitian since 2001/02: 1,200

Industry

In Halberstadt, the structural transformation resulted in above-average unemployment figures, which reached 20 per cent in 2002. This had a significant effect on the employees of the former national railway’s repair shops (RAW), which played an important role in Halberstadt.

The diagram illustrates the radical economic structural reform: Large industrial combines were forced to close, and even where smaller companies came along and still produce today, the often significantly increased output figures require only a fraction of the workforce once needed.

Today, Halberstadt is an administrative centre for the region and a base for diverse supra-regional authorities. A number of medium-sized businesses have successfully established themselves in the town. Medical engineering and machine construction companies and forest and food industries have settled in the industrial parks.

Relocating and Commuting

In the 1990s, suburbanisation affected all the IBA cities. At the same time, people, especially those from the former industrial centres, began to move to West Germany. The populations of the large cities of Halle (Saale) and Magdeburg have increased minimally in recent times, mainly due to migration from Saxony-Anhalt. In the meantime, the improved transportation network allows for longer journeys to and from work and the number of commuters is climbing.

The interactive tool "Relocating and commuting" visualises this range of topics for all IBA cities.

Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (IfL), Leipzig 2010 Data: Günter Herfert, design/programming: Sebastian Specht

Sources for the statistical specifications: Ministry of Regional Development and Transport Saxony-Anhalt; Raumbeobachtungssystem Sachsen-Anhalt (RABE); Statistisches Landesamt Sachsen-Anhalt; Halberstadt Urban Development Concept 2001; GDR statistics, 1989; www.iba-monitor.de; Status 11/2009