Two Towns in Germany: Commerce and the Urban Transformation

by Norbert Dannhaeuser

Overview

Many forces threaten the viability of town centers. One of them is trade concentration in which family businesses are replaced by large, vertically integrated retail enterprises. Town centers, once locations of a rich variety of street stores in the hands of a local and independent merchant community, are being supplanted by monolithic and decentralized commercial zones. This process is documented in contemporary Germany for two towns, one grounded in a market economy and the other, until recently, socialistically based. In both cases, trade concentration is a prevailing force— a pattern that is not only found in post-industrialized nations, but also in developing countries in Latin America and Asia and is indicative of an emerging global culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780897894586
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/16/1996
Series:	Contemporary Urban Studies
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.88(d)
Lexile:	1300L (what's this?)

About the Author

NORBERT DANNHAEUSER is Professor of Anthropology at Texas A&M University. He is the author of Contemporary Trade Strategies in the Philippines: A Study in Marketing Anthropology (1983).

Table of Contents

Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
The Problem and Setting
The Altstadt Trade Community (I)
The Altstadt Trade Community (II)
Hassfurt's Trade Community in the Periphery
The Survival and Demise of Family-Operated Firms under Trade Concentration
Hassfurt's Transformation: Two Merchant Firms
Hassfurt's Transformation: The Mall
The Socialistic Transformation of Hildburghausen
The Post-Socialistic Transformation of Hildburghausen (I)
The Post-Socialistic Transformation of Hildburghausen (II)
Summary and Conclusion
Notes
Glossary
Index of Case Histories
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

According to Dannhaeuser (anthropology, Texas A&M U.), vigorous small town commercial communities are threatened by the increasing concentration of trade in consumer-goods distribution. This study examines the growth of trade concentration during the past four decades in Germany and its social effect in the retail community of a Bavarian town, Hassfurt. This is compared with the post-WWII experience of a town in the former East Germany, Hildburghausen. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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