Almost free housing: East Germany against depopulation

"You have no problem finding affordable housing. There are no traffic jams or rush hour. And I've never had trouble finding a parking space," says Anika Franze, smiling from behind her desk in the center of the small town of Guben on Germany's eastern border with Poland.

The 38-year-old was born in East Berlin, formerly the German Democratic Republic, and lived in the same neighborhood for most of her life before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. But due to the busy pace and housing prices in the capital, she had been thinking about leaving for some time.

During a trip through Brandenburg, she heard on the radio about a "test housing" program in Guben. Interested parties are given the opportunity to live there for up to a month for just 100 euros a week. The goal: to encourage people to settle in the city and thus challenge the growing population decline in eastern Germany.

Applications also from Algeria, Egypt and Brazil
Anika Franze has lived in Guben for eight months, and now runs the project that brought her to the city. She lives in a two-story apartment of 100 square meters, rented for the same price she would pay for a room in a shared apartment in Berlin.

"It's always quiet here, there's no noise, there's less litter on the streets and you always meet people you know," she explains on a short tour of the city. Last year, 30 people took part in the program in Guben, six of whom later moved there permanently. This year, 40 applications have already arrived at Franze's desk: from all over Germany, Belgium, and even from Algeria, Egypt and Brazil.

The population in East Germany has halved in 30 years.
Guben, famous for its textile and hat industries before reunification, is just one of hundreds of industrial towns in East Germany that experienced major demographic changes after German reunification in 1990. Falling birth rates, migration of young people, especially to the western states, and increasing life expectancy have accelerated demographic aging.

"We are missing a whole generation," mayor Fred Mahro told the Berlin newspaper "taz." True, Guben currently has 16,600 inhabitants, while 30 years ago there were almost twice as many. Estimates predict that the population will continue to decline in the coming years, as will the number of people of working age, while the average age, currently 58, will continue to rise.

"From an economic perspective, we need to ensure that locations remain attractive and that incentives are created for companies to locate there, but it's about much more than that, for example, a welcoming culture and social coexistence," Susanne Schultz, a migration policy expert at the Bertelsmann Foundation, told DW.

Not an easy undertaking, as one in four immigrants is considering leaving Germany, according to a recent study by the Institute for Employment Research, IAB. "Dissatisfaction with politics was one of the main reasons and I think that has a lot to do with the recent developments of the past year and a half, the atmosphere in Germany has really changed," says Schultz.

East Germany has an image of a right-wing bastion.
In the fight to attract new residents, Germany's eastern states are mainly struggling with their reputation as a hotbed of right-wing extremism. Guben also made headlines in 1999 when Algerian asylum seeker Farid Guendoul bled to death after being chased by neo-Nazis.

In the federal elections in February 2025, almost 39 percent of residents voted for the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution had recently classified as right-wing extremist. "People have their prejudices and clichés, but in my experience, you can still relate to them. They may just need a little time, because they are not used to so much diversity," explains Anika Franze. She is also disappointed that there is so much focus on the AfD, as more than 60 percent of people voted for moderate parties.

For now, Anika Franze enjoys a life that is quieter than in the German capital. Now she has also managed to fulfill a childhood dream: learning to ride a horse. "I don't know if I want to grow old here, but I also don't know if I would do that in Berlin." DW