> The geographical distribution of economic activity seems to follow a kind of fractal structure.
Nah, it's more the result of WW2 and everything that happened after.
North Rhine-Westphalia was lucky to have lots of heavy industry which really helped the country after WW2, almost everything in terms of mining and heavy industriy and so on happened there. So although NRW was hit probably the most by allied bombs, the natural "richness" with minerals helped to get on top again.
BW and BY were "lucky" to have been under control of the USA (which probably took their image of Germany with them from what they experienced in BY) and French, which were probably somewhat more of "laisez-faire" than the Russians.
Well, we all know what happened with the Eastern parts of Germany...
Nah, it's more the result of WW2 and everything that happened after.
North Rhine-Westphalia was lucky to have lots of heavy industry which really helped the country after WW2, almost everything in terms of mining and heavy industriy and so on happened there. So although NRW was hit probably the most by allied bombs, the natural "richness" with minerals helped to get on top again.
BW and BY were "lucky" to have been under control of the USA (which probably took their image of Germany with them from what they experienced in BY) and French, which were probably somewhat more of "laisez-faire" than the Russians.
Well, we all know what happened with the Eastern parts of Germany...
I find this article a good read, although I'm not sure how good the English version is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied-occupied_Germany