ABSTRACT
The partition of Germany was not envisaged in the immediate postwar years, but became a reality in 1949 when the Federal Republic was created from the territory under Western military control. The Federal Republic of Germany does not possess a strong professional planning institute. The Basic Law of 1949, which acts as the constitution of the federal republic, gives only limited powers to the federal government, but subsequent economic and social development has had the effect of giving it greater powers. Economic policy and planning emphasised the creation of special incentives for investment in the regions close to the so-called iron-curtain border with Eastern Europe. The development programme of 1966 for the Ruhr – which according to the official view successfully overcame the first economic crisis of the Ruhr – was the political and technocratic answer to the problem.
