Rhenish Europe

Introduction

“Of the roads and the cities, all the secrecy of the unit of the Rhenish world” (Etienne Juillard, 1969). In the middle of the Western Europe, Rhenish Europe is one of the places of power of the world and the most dynamic space of Europe. This original economic space was built through the History along two main roads, marked out powerful cities: a continental axis, the axis of the the Rhine, one of the continental axes most important of the world, and the maritime axis of the North Sea, the “ Northern Arranges ”, first Interface of the world. Main issue of the European conflicts since the fall of the Roman Empire, Rhenish Europe today is mainly integrated in the European Union (Suisse and excluded Liechtenstein). One can thus wonder in what, by his axes and its cities, Rhenish Europe it constitutes a zone of power in the middle of a Europe in construction?

Definitions and characteristic of Rhenish space

Definitions

The Rhenish axis is included in Rhenish Europe, itself included in the European megalopolis, itself included in the European sub-continent.

Rhenish axis: Part of Rhenish space including/understanding the the close Rhine and its zones, with its routes transportation parallel and close cities (about thirty km on both sides of the river). Rhenish Europe or Rhenish Space: Together of areas to strong population densities, of the Swiss to the Netherlands, traversed by a vast network of transportation routes, showing a town suit of any sizes historically dependant on the the Rhine and its affluents, powerful industrial, financial areas and activities tertiary S (30% of the GDP of the EU).

Rhenish Europe corresponds to the crossroads between the “ Northern Range ”, first Interface maritime world, of Hamburg in Le Havre, and the Rhenish Axis, centers continental Europe. “blue Banana”, economic Heart of the Europe, European Dorsal or European Megalopolis: The economic zone most powerful of the geographical Europe, the North of the England in the North of the Italy by the Netherlands, the Belgium, the Germany of the West and South-west, the France of North and the East and the Swiss .

A many, generally rich and well formed population

Rhenish Europe counts nearly 100 million inhabitants (13% of the geographical Europe), for a surface of approximately 350.000 km. The population densities thus very strong, on average of 280 hab.km-2, often are included/understood between 100 and 200 hab.km-2 and exceeding 200 hab.km-2 in many areas (Alsace: 212). These strong population densities are related to the presence of the cities and the transportation routes, but the population densities rural are very strong because of a old Agriculture intensive, with the development of the Périurbanisation and the development of the Industrie. The economic power of this area is thus a cause and a consequence of these strong population densities. GDP .hab. - 1 is thus higher there than the European average (above index 100), especially with the Luxembourg, one of the most developed States world (index 196), except in Lorraine and Nord-Pas-de-Calais (indices 86 and 84), old industrial areas in difficult reconversion, with many workmen and unemployed. The population of Rhenish Europe thus rather rich, is well trained, which constitutes an asset for economic development: labor and market of consumption.

Often favorable, sometimes difficult environments

South in North, Rhenish Europe includes/understands varied landscapes: the Alps, the Jura and Swiss Mittelland Country, of the forest old solid masses (“German Wälder”), cut by the the Rhine. Close to these solid masses, one finds important layers of coal, now declining. In North, it is the large plain of Europe of the North which extends from the Paris basin with the Russia.

the the Swiss Alps : They are developed and development well by the Agriculture of mountain directed towards a production of quality (cheeses), the Industrie related on labor, transport and the Hydroélectricité, Tourisme. In spite of the climatic constraints (snow) and topographic (slopes), the the Swiss Alps have a GDP .hab. - 1 comparable with the remainder of the territory of the Swiss .

It is mainly because of alpine mountain that the Suisse S refuse to enter the European Union. She wishes to preserve her Agriculture mountain, essential to the management of this space: the not mown Alpages support the avalanches and the tourists like to see the spaces cultivated and not of the human deserts. She also wishes to be able to manage the passage of the the Alps North of the Europe towards the Italy and thus knew to limit the passage of the trucks by creating a tax of passage.

the valley of the the Rhine : In Germany and France, the valley of the the Rhine had to be arranged to fight against the Crue S and to drain the many marshes (where the batrachians of the Ried constituted the principal menu of the traditional storks of Alsace) by the construction of dams and to allow the Navigation and the production of Hydroélectricité.

polders of the Netherlands : With the Netherlands, as of the Moyen-âge, the increase in population is so high that it is necessary to unceasingly gain new grounds with the costs of water: in fact the Polder S account for today 75% of the surface of the country and thus 60% of the surface of the territory are located at an average altitude of -3,5 Mr. Moreover, the country subsided of 60 cm during the 20th century. The population density is there of 420 hab/km ² and the second home is prohibited there, for lack of place.

Following the violent storm of 1953 (1 835 victims, 6% of the arable lands of the country devastated), the Plane Delta, very expensive, carried out 1958 with 2000, consists of the construction of new dams to the mouths of the large rivers (the Rhine, Meuse, the Scheldt). The Netherlanders start to raise all the dams to face the Climate warming which will have as a consequence an increase of the sea level. The stoppings of the Delta plan are to 3,20 m above the highest tide. Only one stopping on the the Scheldt cost more than 8 billion guilders (3,8 billion €)…

A powerful metropolisation

The term of metropolisation indicates an accentuated movement of concentration of population, economic activities and thus of richnesses in the principal urban surfaces which, so continue to extend at the expense of the other cities.

Characteristic general: many cities, but not of giant city : The density of the Urban network of Rhenish Europe is considerable, of the agglomerations isolated with the vast urban areas, forming the European Mégalopole. The cities are thus never distant from any point of Rhenish Europe, which has two consequences: the Metropolises, too many and relayed well by the big cities and the medium-sized cities do not organize a big space around them. None of these Métropoles could take the first place: the total Métropoles of the Europe are thus located apart from Rhenish Europe (London and Paris).

great urban units : Starting from old urban cores little moved away, several conurbations appeared at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, consequence of economic development related to the Industrial revolution. Six great conurbations are laid out within Rhenish Europe: south in North, one finds successively:

the conurbation of the North of the Swiss Mittelland (Zurich, Saint-Gall, Schaffhouse), although certain geographers make of the same conurbation all Mittelland, of Saint-Gall to Geneva;
the transborder conurbation of the South of the Alsace, including/understanding Basle (Swiss), Mulhouse and Sochaux-Montbeliard (France) and Freiburg (Germany);
the conurbation of the the Rhine - Neckar (2,3 million inhabitants), with Mannheim (political administration), Heidelberg (culture, university) and Ludwigschafen (chemical Industry);
the conurbation of the the Rhine - Hand (2,7 million inhabitants), including/understanding Frankfurt (finances) and Mainz (political administration);
conurbation the Rhine - the Ruhr (with Cologne, Düsseldorf and cities of the the Ruhr), most important by its size (more than 10 million inhabitants);
the conurbation of the Randstad Holland, with Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam and $the Hague. It located around a marsh voluntarily not drained where the agricultural activities dominate.

the aspect of the Rhenish cities : The cities of Rhenish Europe have a structure in “ boxing rings ” (rings) concentric, separating from spaces which developed progressively of their growth. The case is very Net with Cologne or Amsterdam. Their many monuments testify to their historical last rich person. After the destruction of the wars, much of cities are rebuilt with the identical one. With Frankfurt for example, one can admire the native house of Goethe, rebuilt with identical after 1945!

the hubs : The “hubs” are the airport-pivots ensuring the correspondences between the outside lines and interior. They allow fast transport by plane towards the rest of the world: Frankfurt (9th world rank), Amsterdam (11th world rank) and Brussels.

A double system of axes of communication

The axes of communication of Rhenish Europe, of a quasi single density in the world, are of double component: North-South and East-West.

the North-South axis : The axis of component approximately North-South is the Rhenish axis, centers complete with a great inland waterway, the the Rhine, several roads, Autoroutes and Railroads parallel (some at high speed), as well as underground conduits: a Oléoduc connects the oil port of Fos-sur-Mer to Strasbourg and Karlsruhe; another goes from Rotterdam to Frankfurt. On their way, these two pipelines fixed petrochemical refineries and complexes. This axis widens towards the various ports of “Northern Range” in North, limits open Rhenish Europe, narrows in a long central part, then widens again towards the various alpine collars which join the Italy North, in the South of the European Megalopolis. The the parallel Rhine and its channels (in Alsace) are used especially with the traffic as weighty raw materials like the coal, wood, the stones of construction, etc the traffic of the the Rhine which is of 324 MT at the border between the Germany and the Netherlands, decreases upstream by the river. It is very important until Duisbourg, port of the the Ruhr and first river port of Europe (100 MT). With Basle, main door of the Swiss , the traffic is of 26 MT. Since 1959, the Péniche S with the European gauge (i.e. higher than 1.500 T) can reach that point. The other principal ports of the the Rhine are Cologne, Mannheim and Strasbourg.

East-West axes : Starting from this North-South axis, the West-east networks, parallel with the littoral are grafted, from of which “Northern Range” more or less distant, and linking this central region to the remainder of the Europe by a series of roads, of Railroads and Autoroute S as well as water ways. In Germany, the “Mittellandkanal” joined the the Rhine and the the Ruhr with Hamburg and Berlin since 1938 and a channel connects the Neckar, affluent of the the Rhine, with the the Danube and the Black Sea since the September 25th 1992, allowing a direct connection between the two large European rivers. The project of channel the Rhine - the Rhone with large gauge was given up by the French government the June 19th 1997 for two primary reasons: the harmful effects with the Environment and misses it foreseeable traffic. With the intersections of the North-South and East-West main axes, great conurbations of the Rhenish Axis are located.

the “Northern Arranges” : Harbor with Hamburg, it includes/understands a series of very important Ports on the scale of the Europe and world.

It is the maritime interface most powerful of the world: with a traffic of more than 800 MT, they account for 44% of the traffic of the whole of the European ports and appreciably as much as the whole of the joined together North-American ports and a little more than the ports of the Japanese Mégalopole. Two large ports dominate this space: Rotterdam with the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium. A long time, the French ports had a logic of development within a hexagonal framework, which has night with their development. But, there exists a great number of very dynamic ports (Hamburg, Le Havre, Amsterdam and Dunkirk for the five following).

powerful interfaces maritime and continental: This large maritime frontage was born from fishing at the edge of a very full of fish sea formerly (“Amsterdam was built on herring carcasses”) and develops thanks to the traffic with the remainder of the Europe as of the Moyen-âge with Hanse, then world starting from the Renaissance. The ports of “Northern Range” are well connected with their hinterland by a dense network of transportation routes. Since the May 6th 1994, they are connected to the England via Calais by the Channel tunnel, borrowed by a line of Train at high speed, “Eurostar”. This connection is added to the multiple services of ferries which ensure the connection between the continent and the England.

Of the varied harbor sites and in constant evolution: Almost all these ports (Dunkirk except) are located on mouths of rivers: Amsterdam on an old arm of the the Rhine channeled, Rotterdam on Lek, secondary arm of the the Rhine, Antwerp on the the Scheldt. The principal industrial activities are gross the refining of the Pétrole and petrochemistry as well as the metallurgy and automotive engineering. These Industrie S is supported by the littoralisation of the world economy, the low price of the services of maritime transport (the cost of transport of 1 T of coal is of 14 € for 10.000 km) and the possibility of proportioning the imports according to the courses of the raw materials.

Evolution of the traffic of the three large ports of the “Northern Arranges” (million tons)

Transborder spaces

The term of transborder space indicates a geographical space where the relations are intense, in spite of the presence of borders, which thus tend to lose their role of barrier.

the case of the area of Basle : The case most characteristic of these transborder spaces is the area of Basle, in contact with the Suisse, of the France and the Germany, forming a Regio Basiliensis ):

an important network of terrestrial transportation routes shows the interrelationships between the zones close to Basle, whatever the country;
the airport of Basle is located in French territory, but its management is international (Suisse, France, Germany);
many frontier French (70 000 for all the Alsace) works in Suisse or in Germany, where the wages are more interesting and, in return, there exist economic relations (purchases and leisures) as well as many cultural relations, facilitated by close languages (the Alsatian dialect is close to German).

an old co-operation in all Rhenish Europe : Even if the political powers of Rhenish Europe were adversary, even enemy, the Rhenish populations always were in relations between them, which makes Rhenish Europe a transborder space:

In the cultural relations, the university of Heidelberg in Germany, created in 1385, attracts with the Moyen-âge students of all the Europe and wants to be the rival of the Parisian Sorbonne;
In the financial field, as of the the Middle Ages, the powerful Rhenish bankers have offices in the whole of Rhenish Europe, including with London and Paris.

recent aspects of the transborder fact : After the Second world war, the creation of ECSC (April 18th, 1951) then of the EEC (March 25th 1957) is mainly related to the Rhenish ones like Konrad Adenauer (mayor of Cologne) or Robert Schuman (born with Metz). The pooling of the productions of coal and steel then stimulates the Rhenish Industrie S with their apogee before the crisis of the traditional Industrie S which begins in the years 1960. The States and the administrative areas of Rhenish Europe try to develop transborder co-operations through “eurorégions” in order to develop the economy and to carry out a reorganization of the old industrial areas: “Regio Basiliensis”, “Sar - Lor - Lux” (the Lorraine Saar, , Luxembourg), Flandres - Kent - Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Moreover, the Tourisme develops because of richness of the historical cities and the attraction of the sites. It is primarily of a cultural Tourisme and not about a Tourisme of mass as in the Mediterranean Europe. The activities of leisures also develop, in particular by recreation parks.

Powerful economic activities based on the Industry

The strong presence of the Industry

a omnipresent Industry : The Industrie is present in all Rhenish Europe, in particular in the Rhenish Axis, as well the cities as in the campaigns. Almost all the industrial branches are represented there. The basins of employment are thus largely overlapping there because of the pendular migrations, i.e. daily migrations between the places of residence and work.

general Explanations : Rhenish Europe crossed all the industrial revolutions and is modernized unceasingly thanks to technical innovations and with the investment of the profits carried out by the companies:

This Industrie is above all related to the know-how of its inhabitants, acquired since the Moyen-âge (textile) and then reinforced, in particular by the development of technical education, in particular in Suisse and Germany;
It is also related to natural resources present on the spot as the wood of the many forests, the coal (the Ruhr, Lorraine, Wallonia, Nord-Pas-de-Calais), the Fer (Lorraine) or mugs it up (area of Mulhouse);
Of other natural resources can be imported (silk, cotton, Pétrole, produced tropical as the cocoa) by the many transport infrastructures which are also used to export end products.

the filiation of the industrial branches : Starting from the traditional craft industry or from a more recent Industry, derive from others Industrie S, because of and of the use of the knowledge to make labor:

the Textile Craft industry traditional, which existed in particular in the Netherlands and the Suisse, made place with Industrie S textiles mechanized at the 19th century (vapor then electricity);
the traditional metallurgical craft industry makes place at the 19th century with the Sidérurgie allowing the manufacture of cast iron and steel;
the automobile Industry and the mechanical engineering (machine tools) derive from the know-how acquired in the manufacture of machines for the textile or the mines. Sochaux is the site where was born the Peugeot firm, manufacturing machines then cars (since 1898) and of the bicycles, but its head office is with Paris. With the variation of the Rhenish Axis, Stuttgart, industrial big city, are the head office of Mercedes Benz (cars, agricultural machinery) and develop the electronic Industrie today (Bosch”);
the Industry chemical, very powerful in Germany (the Rhine - the Ruhr, the Rhine - Neckar) and in Suisse (Basle) was born starting from the dyes for the textiles and of coal-chemical industry (19th century). It makes it possible to develop the synthetic fibers then petrochemistry and turns to the pharmaceutical Industrie after 1945;
the Industrie S Agro-Alimentaires very present, are also dominated by large transnational firms like “Nestlé” (Vevey, Suisse) and “Unilever” (Rotterdam - London, Netherlands and the United Kingdom).

the crisis of the old industrial areas : As from the years 1960 and especially of the years 1970, the old Industry S (mine S, Textile, metallurgy, naval construction), born at the 19th century, are not competitive any more:

the layers of Iron and coal become exhausted or are not profitable any more;
the request decreases, in particular in the automobile Industrie;
the harbor sites (“on water”) are much more profitable;
Japan and the NPI strongly compete with the European Industrie S.

the example of the the Ruhr : In Rhineland-Westphalia (Germany), the the Ruhr ( Ruhrgebiet in German) was a long time the most powerful area of Europe until in the years 1970. Its power was based on the extraction of the enormous layer of coal (one could exploit the coal still 100-120 years!) and the Iron and steel industry, with large “Konzerne”, like Krupp or Thyssen.

To face the Unemployment, the economy of the the Ruhr thus had deeply to be transformed by policies of reconversion. In the years 1960, the State made contruire a network of highways and encouraged the installation of Industrie S cars, then strong creative of employment. Efforts were made to develop employment tertiary S and employment in the New technologies (creation of a university with Bochum in 1965), to allow the Tourisme and the leisures on the old industrial sites and to improve the very polluted Environnement then.

The force of the tertiary higher

The tertiary term of higher very indicates the Tertiary sector with strong added value: management, large companies of bank or insurances, engineering, services with the companies. It is present in all the Métropoles of Rhenish Europe, in particular with Frankfurt (411 banks!), with Amsterdam and Zurich, economic capital of the Swiss . Finance counts for 40% of the added-value of the Suisse and 37% with the Luxembourg (220 banks). The Luxembourg, the Liechtenstein and the Suisse are famous for the guarantee of the bank secrecy. Moreover, the Liechtenstein emits very required stamps.

Origins of the power of Rhenish Europe

A localization in the middle of the Western Europe

Even if the the Rhine a long time constituted a border and Rhenish Europe a politically divided space, the Rhenish Axis were always an axis of circulation of the men, goods and capital.

geopolitical evolution : Under the Roman Empire, the Rhenish Axis is the border between the “Barbarians” (the German ones) and “Civilized” (Gallo-Romans), this border is materialized by the “files”, line of fortifications intended to prevent plunderings. Under the Empire of Charlemagne, from 800 to 843, the Rhenish Axis is unified. The 8 or August 11th 843, the Traité of Verdun divides the Carolingian Empire. Rhenish Europe belongs mainly to the Lotharingie, vast empire longiligne between future the France (“Francie Western”) and Germany (“Francie Eastern”), of the central Italy (South of Rome) to the Netherlands.

This space is divided then into a multitude of States, between the kingdom of France to the West and the Empire of Austria in the East, of 1519 to 1806 which fight for their influence. Then, the Germany is definitively made up in 1871 to 1945, three wars had as a pretext the problem of the Franco-German borders (problems of the Rhineland, the Saar and the Alsace - Lorraine). This geopolitical history explains:

the absence of political centralization and very large Metropolises;
the aptitude to stimulate the regional or local economic initiatives;
continuous mixing men, goods and capital.

Of 1618, the purpose of beginning of the Thirty Year old war, to 1945, end of the Second world war, the wars of the Western Europe are to dominate this ex- Lotharingie. Starting from 1951, the creation of ECSC, the EEC (1957) then of the European Union (1993) allowed (definitively?) to solve the problem of the borders of Europe Western born into 843 and to create a functional space, i.e. a space which saw intense relations.

urban and economic evolution according to transport: Several generations of cities or development of cities followed one another in this Rhenish Europe:

the village-borders of the “files”, strengthened border of the Roman Empire became cities (Utrecht, Cologne, Mainz);
Of the the Middle Ages at the beginning of the 19th century, built cities, sites of fairs and capitals of princely strongholds competing to be beautiful and attracting;
At the time of the Industrial revolution, of the cities develops, in connection with the exploitation of the mines and industrialization (cities of the the Ruhr or the the Saar).

Towards 1225, the opening of the road of the collar of the Saint-Gothard, between Zurich (future Swiss) and Milan (Lombardy) allowed the development of Rhenish Europe, between the two large economic poles of the Moyen-âge which are the Flanders (with in particular Bruges) and the Italy of North (Venice, Florence and Milan), with the detriment of the French Isthme.

As of the the Middle Ages, the birth of the Suisse (1291) is partly related to the will of the inhabitants of the four primitive cantons (Uri, Unterwald and Schwytz, which will give the name to the country) to control the passage of the collar and to draw some from the benefit. The town of Zurich, which joined the Confederation in 1351, collects the traffic of the various collars, in the car profit (supply of means of transport, banks, insurance companies, purse) and reinvests this capital in the textile Industrie. The dynamism of the middle-class is a feature common to all Rhenish Europe.

At the 19th century, the modern grid systems develop. As of 1815, the the Rhine is regarded as an arm of the sea: the Navigation free, independent of the State-residents and is not taxed there, which launches the alteration work for the modern ships, as from 1831. International conventions are signed again with Mainz (1831) and Mannheim (1868) where is born the Central Commission on Navigation from the the Rhine, based with Mannheim of 1868 with 1919, then with Strasbourg: it is the most former international organization.

Rhenish capitalism

Rhenish capitalism is constituted as of the Moyen-âge by a powerful network of banks, insurances, fairs then of purses. The development of the Protestantisme starting from the Renaissance supports it because for the Protestants, to earn money would be a proof of the love of god. After 1945, develops the social economy of market, characteristic of Rhenish capitalism, where the research of the productivity is done by reconciling the research of the profit and social peace:

the wages are among highest of Europe;
the trade unions, very powerful, take part in the business management;
the social negotiations are carried out before the strikes which are thus rare, but hard;
In certain cases, paternalism is practiced to avoid the revolts of the workmen.

Limits of the power of Rhenish Europe

At the same time concurrent and complementary areas: Paris, London, the Italy of North and Berlin

One can notice that some of these areas also belong to the European Mégalopole.

London and Paris : In the United Kingdom and in France, took place of the attempts at economic decentralization within territories marked by the economic prevalence of London and Paris in the years 1950 to 1980. Then, as from the years 1990, these two States give up this policy in order to create poles of power in a Europe which adapts to the Mondialisation. Without dominating Rhenish Europe, these two Mégapole S have their own logic of accumulation of capital, population, production and culture. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Paris, economic capital and policy of the France tends to recover all the head offices of province: the seat of Peugeot is with Paris. The concentration of the companies also tends to gather the head offices in the world cities.

the Italy of North : The Italy of North (and especially the triangle Genoa - Turin - Milan) are the most developed area Italy, sixth world power. But, the Italy suffers from a lack of transnational firms and a certain delay in the New technologies. An association with Rhenish companies could be a solution.

Berlin : After the German reunification (October 3rd 1990), Berlin (3,5 million inhabitants) was selected like capital of the news Germany, with the detriment of Bonn, the “ Rhenish Bundesdorf ”, even if some ministries remained there. Berlin is offset in Germany and has few head offices compared to the Rhenish Germany, but is located near the Central European countries and Eastern, integrated into the European Union in 2004 and 2007 and the Germany practices investments there since 1990.

Areas in crisis

In Rhenish Europe, the areas in crisis are especially old industrial areas, born at the time of the Industrial revolution:

However, in the geographical and economic context of very dynamic Rhenish Europe, these areas suffer less than from others peripheral (Scotland, Wales, Asturies…) because they profit from their favorable localization: transport infrastructures and of communication, capital and modern industrial environment.

A saturated and polluted space

Between Mannheim and the the Ruhr, in the middle of the Rhenish Axis, the daily traffic is of 70.000 vehicles for the highways, 200 passenger trains and 200 of goods and 82 boats on the the Rhine. The majority of the axes terrestrial, in particular road, are saturated, which requires new expensive installations and at once saturated, while the residents protest more and more against the harmful effects which they generate (syndrome “NIMBY” or “ Not In My Back Yard ”). The Suisse refuses the passage of the trucks through its territory and launches two great projects of Piggyback traffic through the the Alps:

One under the Gothard (57 km of length, 29 billion euros);
the other under Lötschberg (36,4 km) which joined the Tunnel of the Simplon.

The environment is threatened by the industrial growth. November 1st 1986, the fire of the factories “Sandoz” with Basle pours 1.500 T of chemicals in the the Rhine, causing a serious pollution. The five States of the basin then set up a common management of the environment of the river. After more than 20 years, the the Rhine is the cleanest river of Europe from a physicochemical point of view, but not yet according to the bacteriological standards, although the Salmon was reintroduced there.

The alarm clock of the European peripheries since the years 1960

As in “Sun Belt” American, the European peripheries awake as from the years 1970. Industrie S settle there because of low a cost of labor. The Rhenish Axis is thus competed with by:

the development of the Atlantic Europe;
the integration of the Mediterranean Europe;
the opening of the Eastern Europe.

Moreover, with the opening of the Europe of the East, the Rhenish Axis could be competed with by Eastern parallel axes (in particular an axis Hamburg - Berlin - Prague - Vienna) or by the East-West axes which know a Net renewal.

The development of new technologies is done in all Rhenish space, but a little less than in the European peripheries.

End of Rhenish capitalism? : the example of the Germany

the force of the German economy before 1990 : As of the end of the XIXe century, the banks are very powerful and control the companies. The Germany is the second world economic power at the beginning of the 20th century. The FRG knew a strong growth after the Second world war: the economists evoke the “German miracle”. Large the Konzerne like Siemens, Thyssen or Bayeriche Motoren Werke has varied activities and controls many sub-contracting subsidiary companies and SME. Moreover, the State supported a hard currency, the Deutsch Mark: exports are thus constrained the companies are obliged to remain competitive. The Germany accepted the Euro, but knew to impose Frankfurt like sits of the ECB to the Member States of the European Union.

Crisis and revival : Since 1990, the Germany is in crisis; its growth is weak and the rate of Chômage is high. The high costs of the reunification are not the only factor of explanation. Re-elected in 2002, the chancellor Schröder (SPD) lance two priority axes for its economic policy:

the consolidation of public finances, with a great programme of economies in the health expenditure and an increase in the duration of the contributions for the retirement because the birth rate of the Germany is very low and the population ages quickly;
the reduction of the Unemployment by an increase in the flexibility in employment and the fall of the public expenditure devoted to employment.

The elections of 2005 carry to the capacity an alliance CDU - SPD (6 ministers of right-hand side, 8 of left), with the chancellor Angela Merkel (of the ex- GDR), illustrates well the contradiction of the Germany which at the same time wishes to preserve its social model and to develop an inevitably expensive modernization for its company.

In the same way, the economic growth stagnates in Suisse in the years 1990 and the Netherlanders must give up part of their social skills. In June 2005, like the French, they vote with a vast majority against the TCE (European Constitutional treaty), considering this text too liberal.

Rise of intolerance

In many parts of Rhenish Europe (the Alsace for the France), one attends with the rise of the extreme right-hand side and sometimes racist actions. These votes translate the concern of the populations with respect to the changes of the world.

Conclusion

They are thus jointly the axes of communication and the cities which are the origin and the consequence of the power of Rhenish Europe. By the cities located along these axes, was carried out the accumulation of capital necessary to economic development. By an effect of synergy, the development was maintained all along the History.

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