Under shrinkage conditions, the ratio of city to landscape must be re-negotiated. In the densely populated city, the green spaces primarily compensated for the built-up areas. In the less densely populated city, however, a more balanced coexistence can develop.

Given the time it has taken to transform rural areas over the centuries, the transformation of Saxony-Anhalt’s landscape over the last 50 years has proceeded at a gallop. The term landscape no longer describes just the space outside the cities or the farmer’s fields.