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In the Federal Republic of Germany, the political system as well as the spatial pattern of land use and resource allocation is much more decentralised than it is, for instance, in Britain or France. For internal policies, the main responsibilites lie with the L~inder (states) and the communities whose independence to decide upon all matters of local importance is guaranteed in Art. 28 of the constitution. The communities raise taxes, administer and plan a broad range of municipal activities, and their main limitations are their dependence upon the regional planning framework, the mixed financing of L~inder and communities for much of the public investment, and state supervision of their administration in general.Cologne (980.000 inhabitants) is the largest city in North Rhine Westphalia (NRW), which is the most densely populated state in FR Germany. For the NRW cities, adecisive step of political and administrative decentralisation was introduced in 1975 by a bill which made the establishment of district councils and district offices compulsory for all larger cities.

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