On 1 August, Oldenburg's pedestrian zone turned 50 years old. It was the first shopping centre in Germany to encompass several streets. In this interview, urban sociologist Dr Norbert Gestring from the Institute of Social Sciences explains the extent to which this has changed the region and how the pedestrian zone can survive online retail.
QUESTION: Mr Gestring, the people of Oldenburg are celebrating their pedestrian zone for a whole week. There seems to be a very special relationship there, isn't there?
GESTRING: Yes, many Oldenburg residents are very proud of their pedestrian zone. You can always tell when they say that even people from Bremen come here to shop. But the old town also has a very special flair.
QUESTION: What characterises this flair?
GESTRING: There are several factors. The pedestrian zone has a tranquil building structure that is very clearly laid out and encompasses almost the entire old town. It's a great place for a stroll. For a long time, another speciality of Oldenburg was that there were many owner-managed shops - in other words, individual shops with a special product range that the owners put together themselves. In other cities such as Bremen or Hamburg, branches of the same large chains had long since spread. This trend was less pronounced in Oldenburg's pedestrian zone for a long time. In the Schlosshöfe shopping centre, on the other hand, the branches are so present that an interchangeable ambience has been created that is no different from shopping centres (malls) in Braunschweig or Oberhausen.
QUESTION: Do you have an explanation for the fact that owner-managed shops were so important in Oldenburg?
GESTRING: I suspect that the economic pressure here in Oldenburg is simply not as great. Rents are not as high as in Bremen or Hamburg. What's more, a comparatively large number of old town houses in Oldenburg are owned by merchant families. That makes them independent of rents, and the costs are manageable.
QUESTION: How did the idea of setting up pedestrian zones actually come about?
GESTRING: There were several impulses for this. Firstly, it was very cramped in the old town centres, even in Oldenburg. If you look at old photos of Achternstraße, you can see that cars took up almost all the space between the houses and there was only a very narrow pavement. This was exacerbated by the increase in traffic in the 1960s. In addition, the consumption of clothing and entertainment goods became a mass phenomenon at the time. The creation of a pedestrian zone was a perfect fit. The idea is that people don't just drive up to a specific shop, but also take time out on a Saturday morning to simply stroll around.
QUESTION: Shopping as a new weekend pastime - does this reflect the society of the time?
GESTRING: Yes, it was a time of growing prosperity. Taking the whole family into town for a stroll - that was part of the consumer model of the 1960s and 1970s. Up until the 1980s, the pedestrian zone was virtually unrivalled. If you wanted to buy something that went beyond your everyday needs, you had to go to the pedestrian zone. Later came the large shopping centres outside the cities, which you drove to by car. That has also changed again, because these malls have now moved into the city centres and become competition for the old retail trade in the pedestrian zone.
QUESTION: But isn't it good when all the shops are close together and the city centre has a clear focus?
GESTRING: Basically, a city has to fulfil certain functions: Living, working, leisure, consumption. These functions have been spatially separated over the past hundred years - the pedestrian zone is a highly visible example of this development. This spatial separation had to do with the fact that industrial cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries were dirty, unhealthy and generally unbearable due to emissions from industrial plants. In the 1920s and 1930s, the separation of functions became the mission statement of urban planning. For example, purely residential areas were created, with good air and plenty of light - but unfortunately not a single shop, no cultural institution, often not even pubs: pure boredom prevailed. This segregation of functions has long been deplored and attempts are being made to mix it up again. Having an area that only serves consumption will become an obsolete model if consumption no longer takes place there...
QUESTION: ...for example, because there are more and more shopping centres or people are increasingly shopping online. So is the pedestrian zone on the brink of extinction?
GESTRING: I wouldn't say that. But it would certainly make sense to think more and more about how to make the pedestrian zone so attractive that it doesn't look almost deserted after closing time. If there are vacancies, a structural change should be initiated now. In other words, not necessarily letting a shop move back in, but perhaps a special café, a cultural project, a meeting place or a youth centre.
QUESTION: What would the retailers say?
GESTRING: I think there will be a lot of resistance. Many retailers want everything to be clean and safe, just like in a shopping centre. But that would destroy the appeal of the pedestrian zone. It would no longer be a liveable public space, but just boredom on smooth surfaces. When you are in the castle courtyards and look around, you don't even know whether you are in Braunschweig or Hamburg or Oldenburg. It's different in the pedestrian zone, where Oldenburg still has something unmistakable about it. That's probably why Oldenburg residents are proud of their city centre - and will celebrate it accordingly.