Small towns in peripheral regions of Germany
The paper summarizes the main findings of a study on small towns in peripheral locations in Germany. In its first part, the results of the data analysis are presented and the spatial distribution of shrinking and growing small towns in Germany is described. The majority of them in peripheral areas are currently shrinking, which includes an assemblage of demographic, economic, infrastructural and fiscal problems, leading to a danger of a negative downward spiral. The second part deals with specific...