ABSTRACT
The German Democratic Republic (GDR) is the most highly urbanized of the socialist countries; in 1975 about 75% of the population lived in urban communities and around 80% in urban regions. The statistics reveal considerable similarity to the urbanization structure in Czechoslovakia, particularly with regard to the strong concentration of urban population in towns with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants. The GDR is a country of industrial urban agglomerations, for over 40% of its entire population lives in five of them, their cores being Berlin, Leipzig-Halle, Karl-Marx-Stadt-Zwickau, Dresden, and Magdeburg. The large agglomerations also have some disadvantages, the most common being, according to the GDR experience: shortages of some resources, particularly labor power, building capacities, water, and sites; the concentration of old residential and other buildings; and finally, deterioration of the environment. A characteristic feature of GDR settlement is the contrast between north and south.
