The OECD would like to thank the 36 stakeholders of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region that supported this territorial review: the 4 federal states Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western-Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein, the 17 districts and 3 district-free cities, the 7 Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the 3 Chambers of Crafts, the United Business Associations of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein and the Federation of German Trade Unions, District North.
Special thanks go to the members of the local team: Dagmar Kilian and Rainer Schwark, Association of the Greater Hamburg districts in Schleswig-Holstein; Dr Dirk Lau, Chamber of Commerce of Hamburg; Frank Ahlborn, Chamber of Crafts of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Stade; Andreas Roennau, Chamber of Crafts of Hamburg; Dr Paul Raab, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Kiel; Marco Woldt, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Schwerin; Alexander Krause, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Stade; Torsten Obst, District of Ludwigslust-Parchim; Ulrike Thiessen, District of Harburg; Heiko Gröpler, Federation of German Trade Unions, District North; Dr Barnim Foth and Bettina Machaczek, Ministry of Economy, Transport and Innovation of Hamburg; Marko Schramm, Ministry of Economy, Transport, Labour, Technology and Tourism of Schleswig-Holstein; Elgin Foerster, Ministry of Energy, Infrastructure and Digitalisation of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania; Christiane Keller, Anja Schmid and Holger Wege, Ministry of the Interior, Rural Areas and Integration of Schleswig-Holstein; Guido Sempell, Ministry of Urban Development and Housing; Dr Henry Arends, Office of Regional Development Lüneburg; Peter Steen, State Chancellery of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania; Tanja Blätter, Dr Yvonne Brodda, Andrea Färber, Oliver Mau and Jakob Richter, Office of Hamburg Metropolitan Region.
The OECD extends warm thanks to all the members of the Regional Council and the Advisory Group (Steering Committee), as well as the stakeholders from the government and civil society, academia and business representatives across the regions met during the on-site study missions in September and November 2018. The OECD would also like to thank the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Buildings and Community in Germany and other Metropolitan Regions of Germany for their input during the process.
The OECD is grateful to the three international peer reviewers who contributed valuable insights to the project: Tomas Ekberg, Head of Analysis, Region Västra Götaland (Sweden); Bart Nijhof, Advisor, Public Affairs and Strategy, Metropoolregio Rotterdam Den Haag/MRDH (Netherlands); and Joseph Szabo, Executive Director, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning/CMAP (US).
The review was co-ordinated and edited by Soo-Jin Kim, Head of the Urban Policies and Reviews Unit, under the supervision of Rudiger Ahrend, Head of the Economic Analysis, Statistics and Multi-Level Governance Section, and Aziza Akhmouch, Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division. The review was drafted by Christian Krekel (Chapter 1), Lukas Kleine-Rueschkamp (Chapter 2) and Klara Fritz (Chapter 3). The review also benefited from valuable comments from Abel Schumann.
The review was prepared for publication by Pilar Philip and François Iglesias and edited by Eleonore Morena.