Provincialization
Under provincialism means a geopolitical development process, in which a former major independent area of a new rule is assumed and therefore less important.
Examples
1) For example, the city of Mainz formed the center of the powerful Archdiocese of Kurmainz until 1803 , but was then subordinated to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt through secularization and thus lost its function as a political center and became marginalized in the new state.
2) On August 23, 1946, the city of Münster lost its status as the capital of a national sub-entity through the dissolution of the Province of Westphalia and its incorporation into the new state of North Rhine-Westphalia .
3) Another current example is the city of Suhl in Thuringia , which until 1990 had the same status as Erfurt or Dresden as a district town in the GDR , but after the fall of the Wall lost its political and economic importance and became a "normal" urban district again , whereby the population decreased significantly.
4) West Berlin and Bonn are further examples of the process of provincialization. Berlin was the political center of Germany until 1945, but then lost this function due to the division of Germany and "sank into insignificance" (West Berlin). However, the authorities and the political institutions returned to Berlin after reunification, which reversed the provincialization and now affects the previous seat of government Bonn, albeit to a lesser extent, as many institutions still have secondary posts in the federal city of Bonn.