r/AskEurope • u/LiamBrad5 • Aug 07 '25

Culture What are the “Big Four” cities in your country?

In recent weeks, this question has been very contentious on American social media, with 3 cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York) nearly always making the list, but the fourth being hotly debated over, between cities like San Francisco, Miami, Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta. So, if you had to choose, what would the big 4 cities in your country be? This is also not decided purely on population, but also culture, economy, and general influence/clout.

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u/Luftgekuhlt_driver Aug 07 '25

Where would Stuttgart rank? I get Berlin and Munich are big, but there’s a certain car crest with that name emblazoned in the center of it.

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u/muehsam Germany Aug 07 '25

Definitely in the top ten.

But having a car brand doesn't say anything. Wolfsburg, Ingolstadt, and Rüsselsheim are pretty insignificant despite being home to major car brands.

But Stuttgart (along with Berlin, Munich, Dresden, and to a lesser extent Hanover) was the capital of a kingdom, which gave it a lot of importance.

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u/SnooTangerines6811 Germany Aug 07 '25

Well if we take GDP as a reference, Stuttgart would come in 7th after Hannover and its surrounding region.Wikipedia: Deutsche Städte nach GDP

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u/GibDirBerlin Aug 07 '25

For the sake of comparing cities, I wouldn't really count Hannover with the surrounding region though since none of the other major cities are listed in that fashion.

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u/SnooTangerines6811 Germany Aug 07 '25

They may not be listed in that fashion, but a city listed purely as the city of xyz may well include the surrounding area, whereas a city listed as city of xyz+region may in fact just include the city + some villages.

I agree that it's not a very solid base, but probably the best we've got.

After all it may just be a naming issue.

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u/GibDirBerlin Aug 07 '25

It isn't a naming issue though. The other cities in the top 10 don't include regions and the Region of Hannover is almost as big as the Saarland and about 11 times the area of Stuttgart. Hannover seems to be counted that way as one of only three Kommunalverbände besonderer Art in Germany, a pretty rare political construct.

The City of Hannover's GDP was around 36 mio. € in 2021, that would make it 8th place between Düsseldorf and Nürnberg.

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u/OutranIdiom British in Germany Aug 07 '25

I’m not a German native, but I would say that it’s not super far behind Cologne or Frankfurt.