Before an audience of international experts, including mayors, urban planners, architects, sociologists, journalists and politicians, the Chancellor spoke of the accelerated development of cities with millions of inhabitants and indicated they are among the world’s biggest policy challenges. Crime, poverty and unsuccessful integration posed risks to peace in society in cities, according to Chancellor Merkel. In his welcoming remarks, Dr. Ackermann pointed out that “already today, cities use three-quarters of the world’s energy. But they are also the motors of the global economy.”

Topics that have serious impacts on the world’s mega-cities, for example, security, job markets, urban planning, forms of governance, residential development and transportation, were the focus of discussions by experts, including Richard Sennet, Saskia Sassen, Enrique Norten, Amanda Burden and Enrique Penalosa. They all referred to their own experience as well as the results of the previous Urban Age conferences in New York, Shanghai, London, Mexico City and Johannesburg. 

Politicians, for example, Anthony Williams, the Mayor of Washington, D.C., Marcelo Ebrard, the Mayor of Mexico City, and José Serra, the Governor of São Paulo, spoke about a topic that is growing in importance: “Governance and the City”.

Security was also a topic that was discussed extensively at the international conference. London’s Commissioner of the Police, Ian Blair, held a policy speech on security in cities and the growing risk of urban terrorism.

Although Berlin cannot actually be considered one of the world’s mega-cities, its status as a key metropolis became clear during the Berlin panel. Moderated by Hans-Ulrich Jörges, Deputy Chief Editor of Der Stern magazine, Berlin’s future was discussed by Mathias Döpfner, Chairman of the Management Board of Axel Springer AG, Frank Schirrmacher, Co-Publisher of the FAZ, Hans Stimmann, former Director of the Senate Department of Urban Development in Berlin, and Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum in London.

They perceive Berlin to be a creative and dynamic metropolis. The British architect Lord Norman Foster confirms this and calls Berlin a city, like Beijing and Moscow, that has “bubbling energy.” Berlin is full of “contradictions and exceptions,” summarized Foster.
The Urban Age Summit in Berlin concluded a two-year series of conferences organized by the Alfred Herrhausen Society, the International Forum of Deutsche Bank, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. The reason for this worldwide investigation of mega-cities was a UN study stating that by the middle of this century, two-thirds of the world’s people will be living in cities. The UN projects that in the year 2020 there will be 1.4 billion people in steadily growing slums. Cities are places of hope for millions of people from all around the world. And yet, all of society’s problems become more concentrated in the close confines of urban areas.

The results of the two-year series of conferences will be published in May 2007.