Facts Hansestadt Stendal

Selected Key Data

Population

The industrial sector beyond the conurbations, which anyway was structurally weak and lacking in differentiation, suffered a sharp decline. Stendal was forced to cope above all with the construction stop on the nuclear power plant. During the last years of the GDR regime, the large building site had caused the population figures to spiral significantly from 37,000 to almost 51,000. All of this led to high rates of unemployment (22 percent in 2000) and had lofty migration figures as a consequence.

The district bled out even more, one in which, numbering 43 inhabitants per square kilometre, the population density was already among the lowest in Saxony Anhalt. In the period from 1990 to 2000 alone, Stendal lost 10,000 inhabitants so that only just under 40,000 people were still living in the county town at the turn of the millennium. The construction of owneroccupied homes in the surrounding regions additionally heightened the drop in population figures and, together with people switching jobs, caused furthermore an unusually high number of commuters.

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

The large housing estates in prefab industrial block style Stendal-South and Stadtsee were hardest hit. Almost one third of the apartments were vacant, a commercially threatening state of affairs for the local housing companies. Accordingly, Stendal and the housing companies decided very quickly on the almost complete demolition of the South district. It was therefore the first city in Saxony Anhalt that demolished an entire prefab industrial block estate. At the same time, the first gentrification measures were carried out in the Stadtsee district within the framework of special subsidisation programmes for new housing estates.

Housing Situation in Hansestadt Stendal (2/2010):
Housing Stock: 21,599
Surplus Housing: 3,758 / 17 Percent 
Housing Demolitian since 2001/02: 4,238

Industry

Stendal was forced to cope above all with the construction stop on the nuclear power plant, wich caused high rates of unemployment – 22 percent in 2000. 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.

Over the course of the latest development, work also commenced on raising the city’s profile as a centre of commerce and education. Food-processing metalworking firms have since settled here or expanded. Stendal opened its own university in 1998, now part of the University of Magdeburg-Stendal (FH).

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 details: Ministry of Regional Development and Transport Saxony-Anhalt; Raumbeobachtungssystem Sachsen-Anhalt (RABE); Statistisches Landesamt Sachsen-Anhalt; Employment Agency, Stendal area; Urban Development Concept Stendal 2001; 1989 GDR statistics; www.iba-monitor.de; Status: 11/20093