The Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik, or Difu, is a Berlin-based research institute focused on municipal policy and urban development. Founded in 1973, it is Germany’s largest scientific institute working on local government issues. As a non-profit and independent organisation, Difu studies questions that matter to cities, towns and districts, and turns research findings into practical guidance for public administrations and elected local officials.
Its work ranges from climate protection, mobility and digitalisation to public finance, housing, administrative reform and land use. Difu also advises policymakers at municipal, state, federal and EU level. In practice, that means the institute combines applied research, policy analysis, publications, conferences and training for local authorities. It is headquartered in Berlin, with another office in Cologne, reflecting its national reach across Germany.
Recent topics on Difu’s website show the breadth of its agenda: support for municipalities that want to integrate cargo bikes into commercial transport, a digital platform for sustainable municipalities developed with the Bertelsmann Foundation, research on the impact of artificial intelligence on municipal processes, and policy work on simplification of climate funding for local governments. Difu also publishes a regular magazine, “Berichte,” and thematic papers on issues such as sufficiency, digitalisation and the local management of data centres.
In the German urban policy landscape, Difu functions as a bridge between research and practice. Its role is not to design cities itself, but to provide evidence, methods and recommendations that local governments can use in day-to-day decision-making.