{"id":362719,"date":"2025-08-21T18:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T18:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/362719\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T18:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T18:39:09","slug":"german-contest-to-live-in-depopulated-soviet-era-city-proves-global-hit-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/362719\/","title":{"rendered":"German contest to live in depopulated Soviet-era city proves global hit | Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

An innovative contest by a city in formerly communist east Germany<\/a> to curb depopulation by offering a fortnight of free housing has stunned local officials with its success.<\/p>\n

The competition drew more than 1,700 applications from around the world to try living in Eisenh\u00fcttenstadt<\/a>, a Soviet-style planned city on the Polish border, near Berlin, which was built around a steel plant in the aftermath of the second world war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ourselves were very surprised by the reach our Probewohnen (trial living) project has had,\u201d Julia Basan, the municipal economic development officer spearheading the campaign, told reporters on Thursday.<\/p>\n

She said those who had thrown their hat into the ring since May had \u201cthe most wide-ranging motives\u201d including one foreign man who simply said he \u201cwanted to marry a German woman\u201d. But the majority were \u201cvery realistic applications\u201d, Basan said.<\/p>\n

The two winners, both German professionals, will move into spacious furnished flats in the city centre in September and be treated to a red-carpet orientation programme.<\/p>\n

The city was built around a steel plant soon after the second world war. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Melanie Henniger, a 49-year-old IT consultant and self-described \u201cempty nester\u201d living in the north-western city of Bremen, said she had grown up in nearby Frankfurt an der Oder and was interested in returning to her eastern roots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great chance to get to know the region again, because otherwise I wouldn\u2019t have any opportunities at all as I don\u2019t know anyone there any more,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the best case scenario, I can put down new roots there again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other successful applicant, 39-year-old Jonas Brander, is a Berlin-based film-maker working on a documentary about Eisenh\u00fcttenstadt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very interested in the city and its people and I want to get very close to life in my work,\u201d Brander said, adding that he was drawn to its \u201cliving history\u201d.<\/p>\n

Eisenh\u00fcttenstadt, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, was the first city to be founded \u2013 in east or west Germany \u2013 after the Nazi period. It was built according to a socialist model designed to blend work and family life for the good of all.<\/p>\n

But the years since national reunification in 1990 have been hard on the town, which has fewer than half the 53,000 residents it counted before the fall of the Berlin Wall.<\/p>\n

The shrinking and ageing population has compounded a skilled labour shortage for local industry, in what economists say can easily turn into a death spiral.<\/p>\n

A palpable sense of decline has spurred support for the far-right Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland<\/a> party, which won nearly 40% of local votes in the February general election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The strength of the anti-migrant, anti-Islam party in many east German regions is often cited as a deterrent to new residents, especially highly qualified people from abroad.<\/p>\n

However, Basan said the programme had allowed Eisenh\u00fcttenstadt to put its best foot forward, touting its renovated and affordable neoclassical housing, verdant surroundings perfect for swimming and cycling, and plentiful childcare and work opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe even had one family, from another European country, who heard about us via the Probewohnen programme and are moving here on their own steam. They\u2019ve already signed a work contract with a local company,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did it all themselves and we\u2019re just thrilled.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An innovative contest by a city in formerly communist east Germany to curb depopulation by offering a fortnight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-362719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115068217813349089","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}