// WENDLAND AND ELBE VALLEY Jörg Schröder, Maddalena Ferretti
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BACKGROUND OF THE TERRITORIAL PORTRAIT The Focus Region is located in the south-east of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region and along the Elbe, Germany‘s third-largest river and an important asset for the region. In addition to the connection to Hamburg, the connections to Berlin and Magdeburg represent an important potential. The Elbe always represented a fracture between the two different territories. On the one hand, this was due to the barrier effect of a dynamic large riverbed and the resulting lack of crossing lines, and, on the other, to the connection of the districts north and south of the river to different regional cultural areas (Mecklenburg- Schwerin and Hannover, respectively). In addition, the Elbe in this area was the border between East and West Germany from 1945 to 1990. This has strengthened different regional characters of the territories, which have remained spatially and socially quite diverse up to today. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS Lüchow-Dannenberg. For this district a population decline of up to 20% (2009–2031) is predicted.8 Recently, however, one can speak of a stabilisation of population figures: in 2015 a net increase of +1,400 in the district has been noted, with a net increase of 1,798 of movements into the district that exceeded the natural decrease.9 The district of Lüchow-Dannenberg is characterised by very low economic strengths and high risks, if compared to the rest of Germany. 10 The unemployment rate in 2015 has been 8%.11 The number of commuters coming into in the district was 26.0% of all employees in 2016, and the number of outgoing commuters was 35.5% of residents. The economy
of the district has so far not been significantly influenced by tourism, with about 260,000 overnight stays in 2015.13 A potential for tourism is especially recognised in the Elbe floodplains.14 The rural character, the cultural heritage (also supra-regional events such as the Kulturelle Landpartie), and the built heritage constitute a potential focus for regional development. SETTLEMENT AND BUILDINGS STRUCTURE Wendland The Wendland is characterised by the settlement and fields forms of round hamlets (Rundlinge), that in the thirteenth century were systematically settled. The typical hall houses are arranged in a round form around the green common area at the centre of the hamlet. Today, more than a hundred Rundlinge still exist in the region. The transformations that have been triggered by alternative thinking in regard to the concentration and industrialisation in agriculture have set new regional impulses since the 1970s in the fields of culture, regional production, and crafts. The centres in Wendland (Lüchow and Dannenberg) concentrate today supply functions, trade, and industry, with appropriate monofunctional building structures and extensions of housing development areas. They also take over the function of regional main gateway for incoming commuters. Elbe Valley The set of settlement structures and the cultivation of the landscape were associated with the Elbe floods, with the fertile alluvial soils and the transport options along the river and in the Geest areas. Terp villages (Wurtendörfer) created on artificial dwelling mounds and row
