Soon after the foundation of the town by the landgraves, many people settled in Marburg to find protection through the castle. For the time being, the political function of the town remained more important, even though Marburg still belonged to the territory of the rulers of Thuringia, which was still administered by Eisenach. After the Thuringian line became extinct, Marburg became the birthplace of the independent territory of the landgrave of Hesse.

The phase of Marburg´s political development is overlaid by a clerical one, which is mainly determined by the name of St. Elisabeth of Marburg. After her husband's death (Landgrave Ludwig IV of Thuringia), the castle was assigned to Elisabeth as her widow's seat. In 1228, she endowed the St. Francis Hospital, which was subordinated to the Teutonic Order. She dedicated her life to the poor and the sick. After Elisabeth's early death (1231 at the age of 24) and her canonization in 1235 in the Church of St. Elisabeth, Marburg became one of the most important pilgrimage places in Europe. The maintenance of her grave and therefore the organization of the pilgrimage passed to the Teutonic Order [5].

The following centuries up to the beginning of reformation are characterised by a triple-division, consisting of the Hessian landgraves, the archbishopric of Mainz and the Teutonic Order of Knights, all three opposing as competitors. Under the rule of Philipp [6] (the Magnanimous, 1504 - 1567), the landgraves of Hesse became Protestants (Synod of Homberg, 1526). In fact, this meant an end to pilgrimage in Marburg. In 1527, all monasteries in Marburg were secularized. The proceeds were partly used to finance the foundation of Philipps Universitaet [7] in the same year. The clerical buildings devolved to the university, which is the world's oldest protestant university.

The university has always been an important economic factor - even though the number of students at first remained moderate. However, inspite of the foundation of the university, the Reformation started a phase of stagnation rather than a new beginning.

Not until the middle of the 19th century did many major changes take place initiating modern urban development. The connection to the railway network had a basic impact. Furthermore, the annexation of the Electorate of Hesse by Prussia in 1866 led to the promotion of Philipps Universitaet to a Prussian state university and the upgrading of Marburg into a garrison town. For the city development this meant a substantial growth right to the banks of the river. Within a few years, the city's appearance completely changed. Student numbers at the university appeared to be growing consistently. A number of historical personalities [8] boosted the attractiveness of the university.

The strong influence [9] of the university had possibly prevented Marburg from becoming an industrial city like the nearby town of Giessen [10]. It has led to a distinctive population and economic structure. For example, Marburg has one of the highest rates of working population in the service sector. The university itself is by far the largest employer (7614 employees in 1999) and is the determining economic factor for the community. At the same time, the university influences the population structure through highly related population and student numbers. Today, students account for a share of 23% of the total population, which is one of the highest percentages in Germany (on the same level are Muenster, Giessen and Tuebingen).

In the past, the building trade and associated industries benefited from the university. Today, the trade with university-linked goods and services, such as the catering sector, office supplies and stationery goods are more important. Municipal buildings and those belonging to the university are still linked in many ways. The university produces financial expenses of 717 million DM per year, this is 2.8 times the budget of the city of Marburg itself (Leib 1990: 172-174).

Many more service sectors [11] emerged in close connection to the university. A closer look should be taken at the more recent sectors, such as information, telecommunication and modern media.

Marburg established a co-ordinating office [12] for economic development in order to promote Marburg as a business location. It tries to develop new markets by advising site entrepeneurs. A good example is the "Software-Center" [13], built on the terrain of former barracks ("Jaegerkaserne"). Companies from the field of modern media as well as telecommunications joined to consolidate Marburg as an important location for internet commerce. Therefore, it is not unusual to find Web Publishers and hardware providers here. This virtual scope extension is accentuated by another institution on the site: the Congress-Center. The remaining buildings provide cheap housing for students. To call this development city extension would not be appropriate. It is more a metamorphosis of functions, initiated by urban planning. Another one is the new district of "Marburg-Stadtwald" which is also a city expansion, although it has not been completely newly developed. Built on the former site of another barracks, the "Tannenbergkaserne" [14], it also accommodates a centre for the foundation of starter-firms.

The low relevance of Marburg´s industry has already been mentioned. However, there is an exception, which again has to be seen in relation to the University: "Behring-Werke Marburg". In 1904, Emil von Behring [15], the first German winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine, founded the company by entering it in the trade register. Today, it ranks second in providing jobs in Marburg. After discovering the anti-toxic effect of blood serum, he was given a professorship in 1890, founded the Schlossberg-laboratories and finally used the prize to buy a property in Marbach. There he established his company that it still located there. The company's importance is not only shown in the number of jobs it provides, but also in the number of international activities. Today, the traditional company is divided up into many joint ventures (for further information, see W. Döpp).

For several years, Marburg has been trying to increase its economic basis. The target is to form a more stable economy and to gain higher influence on the surrounding region. To illustrate this, the retail sector is a good example.

Even though retail trade in Marburg has its own flavour, it is confronted with a lot of problems. Despite the fact of increasing nominal returns of approximately 50% during the period from 1986 to 1992 (Sailer-Fliege 1995: 154.), the situation for inner city retailers is not very easy. Compared to the neighbouring cities, the returns remain below average.

Suburbanization has been taking place in Marburg since the 1970s. New shopping centres were built on the edge of the town, e. g. Wehrda and Cappel - both part of the town since the communal reform in 1974. Most of the growth of trade returns flowed to these new shops. The construction of a bypass even raised the attractiveness of the new centres. The problems of the traditional downtown - e.g., parking - reappeared along with new difficulties. Today's customers demand a great variety of goods combined with highest quality which is difficult to offer in the narrow streets of the old city. Both choice and quality are more easily offered by the out-of-town locations (see Diagram). This is why many customers head directly to the "commercial suburbs".

The city's effort to solve this problem is to increase the quality of shopping. By establishing parking space management, by park and ride systems and by constructing new commercial housing, the city is trying to encourage these endeavours. Recently, new shopping centres have appeared in the city that offer a great variety of goods and services like cinemas, exhibitions, electronics and clothing. The question is, if the common trend of decreasing importance of inner-city areas (tertiary suburbanization) could be reversed by these measures.

In the early 1970´s, the new communal structure of Hesse provided the political basis for the city's inter regional importance. This reform made Marburg one of the higher urban centres [16] (Oberzentrum) in Central Hesse. On the other hand, Marburg´s current inter regional significance is restricted by the presence of an even stronger economic centre within the 30 km range: Giessen-Wetzlar .