Abstract

Before the Wende, the largest employers in the Brandenburgian town of Wittenberge were a publicly owned pulp and viscose rayon plant [VEB Zellstoff- und Zellwollewerke] and a sewing machine factory. After 1990, almost all of those jobs were lost to restructuring. Low birthrates and high rates of out-migration caused Wittenberge to lose about 10,000 residents after 1989/90. Because prospects there were grim, many people – especially the young ones – moved to big cities such as Hamburg and Berlin, and to the West German federal states; many of those who left were young women. It is predicted that some individual cities in the state of Brandenburg will see a one-third drop in population by 2015. According to one estimate, more than 12% of Brandenburg's 150,000 residential units were vacant in 2001 on account of population decline. In Wittenberge, the vacancy rate was even as high as 40 percent.

Vacant Apartment Buildings in Wittenberge (February 15, 2001)

  • Karlheinz Schindler

Source

Source: picture-alliance / ZB (c) ZB-Fotoreport