“There is no problem in finding any cheap housing, there are no traffic jams, no crowd, and I have never had trouble finding a parking space,” said Anika from her table in Guben’s small town center.
The 38 -year -old was born in the East Berlin at the former German Democratic Republic and lived most of his lives before and after the collapse of the wall in the same district of the capital. But she says that Udham and stir, a feeling of helplessness about increasing inequality, not to minerals, not a strict habitat, had a long desire to leave it.
Driving through Brandenburg only with local radio for the company, he heard about a “trial living” (“trial”), which gives people a chance to stay free for four weeks in Guben on the far east border of Germany with Poland. The idea was to encourage more people to come to the city and help in settling.
Franke has been here for eight months and now manages the project that was earlier brought to the city. Here she can rent a 100 square meter, divided-tier apartment with a walk-in wardrobe for less than a room for a room for a room for a room for a room for a room for a room.
“It is always calm, no sound pollution, there are less litter on the streets, and you always run in those you know, which I find quite a lot,” she describes a whistlestop tour of the city that included a quick journey across the river to eat fancy cake in a polish cafe.
Thirty people participated in the scheme in Guben last year and six of them went here for a long period. Franke says that the press coverage resulted in more followed. Similar projects have been launched in cities near the Lucia region, including frankfurt (Odder), and recently in Essenhettenstadt, originally stalinstad, which is called the first planned model city built in GDR.
New solutions for a shrinking and aging population
Guben is one of the hundreds of industrial towns and cities in the east, which undergoes major demographic changes after the German reunion in 1990. The decline in birth rate, mainly youth migration and rising expectations in western federal finale states have accelerated demographic aging here.
Currently in 1995, there are 16.600 people in Guben, below 29.100 in 1995. The number is expected to fall 16% in the decade of 2030, which is an estimated 27% decrease in the working age population. The average age is currently 58 and is increasing. “We are missing for the entire generation,” the city’s mayor, Fred Maharo, told the newspaper of Berlin that when the plan was first started.
Final decline, The Burtlesman Foundation, Two Independent Civil Society Foundation published a study that found that Germany Wilde continued to depend on migration to cover its forecast labor market demand. In addition, due to comparable demographic condition in other European states, migration will have to come from countries outside the European Union.
“From an economic point of view, we need to ensure that the locations remain attractive, that the business is encouraged to set there, but it is much more than that, for example, a welcome culture and social interaction,” says Susain Shults, a specialist of the Bartelesman Foundation, “says Susain Shults.
Shults pointed to research published for employment by the Institute for Employment at the Federal Employment Agency last week, showing that more than a quarter of Abrod -born and who had come to Germany between 18 and 65 when left the country last year.
In the survey, two-thirds of the people quoted as the reason for leaving discrimination; One third said that they do not welcome or only a little welcoming. Rhizzle and policies on the issue of migration, for example, recent steps to prevent families of some groups of immigrants from going to Germany, according to Shults, are sending out the wrong signals.
He said, “dissatisfaction with politics was one of the main reactions, and I think there is much to do so with dish development in the last year and a half.
East Germany struggles with far-off image problems
In the struggle to attract new inhabitants, there is an image problem in the eastern states of Germany, as there is an image problem as hotbands for right -wing extremism. In 1999, Guben made headlines, when an Algerian refugee, Farid Gundol killed the newly-Najis after being hound.
In the federal elections of February 2025, he voted under 42% of the local resident for a distant option for the German party (AFD). AFD is known for its harsh immigration rhetoric. It is classified as a “right -wing extremist” by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, although the agency would refrain from using the term until the court verdict was issued.
Franke says that the number does not reflect the day-to-day life in the city and is disappointed at focusing on AFD when about 60% of people here voted for liberal or liberal parties.
The German woman explains, “People have their prejudice and teaching, but in my experience, you can still connect with people, they just need a little time because they do not use for a lot of variety,” the German woman tells them. “I will not imagine begging in any other small European city.”
Now in its second year, the scheme in Guben has received 40 applications from Germany, as well as Belgium, Algeria, Egypt and Brazil. Successful applicants just want to be home in the newly renovated apartments for the contribution of € 100 ($ 115).
There is an opportunity to participate in weekly social functions with residents, making an artistic contribution to the city in collaboration with an internship at a local museum and Thu a local company.
Guben was once famous for the IT textile industry and millinery: First Weatherproof Wool Felt Hats was built here, and a synthetic fiber factory, opened in 1960, which was the largest employer in the district for a long time. Investment from the European Union and the German government is now pumped into the Lignite region as a lignite, so it is known as brown coal, mining is staged as part of the switch of the carbon-plated economy.
Franke says that currently about 300 job vacancies are being filled. The US-Down opening manufacturer Bifi opened a factory here in 2024, a production site of bakery chain dressing, and Canadian Lithium Battery Rock Tech is opening a plant that is the size of 17 football pitches.
Right now, French is enjoying a life that is somehow a little more manageable than in the German capital, and has fulfilled the childhood dream of learning to ride horses.
“I don’t know if I want to be old here, but I don’t know if I want to do this in Berlin Ether,” she says.
Edited by Reena Goldenburg
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