This study is an investigation of the transformation of the economic structure of two border city regions, Saarbrücken and Copenhagen. The reason for a comparative analysis is that they have a similar industrial background that was declining and accompanied by the rise of the service sector in the second half of the 20th century. This decline of industry also brought a transformation of the economic structure as well as new branches of economic activity. The transformation process accelerated and the economic development differed in the respective cases for the last two decades. The fact that regions can induce dynamism in economy via developments if they create attractive conditions for capital and highly educated labour force has been observed. In addition to that, the shared characteristic as being part of a cross border agglomeration and their potential to integrate with the cities in their neighbouring countries France and Sweden is also part of the investigation.