Central places, in particular local and regional centres, are of particular importance in spatial planning for ensuring services of general interest, especially in (sparsely populated) rural areas, but also in urban areas. However, they face considerable challenges, such as inflationary designation for primarily political reasons, image problems, the lack of implementation of the related statements and the unclear status of the so-called equipment catalogues. The political criticism of the central towns is
contrasted with the current high level of attention for small and medium-sized towns, which are increasingly recognised as “anchor points” for the securing of services of general interest and for the active development of sparsely populated regions. Against this background, the article makes recommendations on how to merge the discourses. Above all, it should be made clear that functional and attractive small and medium-sized towns are at the same time the core elements of a sustainable central place system.
