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E German Towns 'Left ToPoverty'
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 4-9-2007 | Harry de Quetteville

Posted on 04/08/2007 5:54:29 PM PDT by blam

E German towns 'left to poverty'

By Harry de Quetteville in Hoyerswerda
Last Updated: 1:10am BST 09/04/2007

After two decades of promises to revitalise its former communist east, Germany has abandoned swathes of the ex-GDR to poverty and depopulation, a scathing new report has revealed.

The trend, which has seen hundreds of thousands flee westwards from the neglect, is so bad that the old communist east is now studded with "ghost towns", it says.

The report, released late last month and called the Future Atlas 2007, is the most detailed examination of 439 towns and regions in Germany, and shatters the pledges made almost 20 years ago.

It reveals that investment worth hundreds of billions of pounds in selected eastern "hotspots" such as Dresden and Potsdam has helped resuscitate their once downtrodden economies.

But beyond these much publicised symbols of success, it says, is an economic desert where the concrete tenement blocks of communist times endure, but the communities, industries and jobs do not.

"The state has focused on economic clusters like Dresden in the east," said Peter Kaiser, the report's author. "But elsewhere people are running away.

"It's like the American Midwest after the gold rush. These are becoming ghost cities."

The town of Hoyerswerda, once a hub of East German industry with its highest birth rate, is at the bottom of the report's chart.

From a population high of 72,000 people, drawn 30 years ago to its coal mining, its power plant and glass factories, there remain only 40,000 today.

The vast majority, according to Peter Kaiser, have left in the last 10 years.

For those who remain in Hoyerswerda, the prospects are grim. Unemployment is well over double the national average.

On a Friday morning, its local mall was filled with working-age men and women.

"The work market is a disaster here," said Rene Bohm, 20, a sales assistant at a shoe shop.

"Young people like me don't stay, they leave. I'm saving up a bit and then I'll go too."

In a country renowned for its road network, Hoyerswerda is marooned from motorways. The 40 miles down the slow road to Dresden, the regional capital, takes more than an hour to drive. The economic gap is far wider.

The city once levelled by a single night's Allied bombing in 1945 is now a tribute to the regenerational power of money and political will.

Blindingly gilded statues glimmer as glistening trams swish silently by.

Tourists fill the city's many five star hotels before heading to its world class art galleries and opera house.

"We have islands of success in the east, like Dresden," said Peter Kaiser.

"But we have to face the fact that towns like Hoyerswerda have really very low future prospects. They might just disappear."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: depopulation; german; poverty; towns
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1 posted on 04/08/2007 5:54:30 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam

...what’s a mother to do???


2 posted on 04/08/2007 6:08:49 PM PDT by Gunny P (Gunny P)
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To: blam

Merkel’s fault.


3 posted on 04/08/2007 6:11:05 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: blam

East Germany wanted the West to come and rebuild their ruined cities for them after Communism ran them into the ground. It’s the same “come do it for us” syndrome that New Orleans has manifested after Katrina. Socialism cripples people so they can no longer fend for themselves but sit and wait for someone else to take care of them. Democrats are hoping to do that to the entire USA.


4 posted on 04/08/2007 6:11:06 PM PDT by kittymyrib
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To: blam

It’ll take time to repair the damage done by the communists. Sadly, people suffer.

Eventually, Germany will even out again; but it will take time: Horrible damage was done.


5 posted on 04/08/2007 6:12:31 PM PDT by bannie
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To: blam
"The state has focused on economic clusters like Dresden in the east," said Peter Kaiser, the report's author. "But elsewhere people are running away.

"It's like the American Midwest after the gold rush. These are becoming ghost cities."

Ummm...then maybe there is no reason for those cities to exist in the first place? Just because the Communists threw up a bunch of cheap concrete apartment blocks in these places doesn't mean they had any economic justification for doing so.

Sounds like the problem is solving itself - people are leaving the economic dead zones and going where the work is. Kind of like Michigan in the United States. ;)

6 posted on 04/08/2007 6:13:13 PM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ("Wise men don't need to debate; men who need to debate are not wise." -- Tao Te Ching)
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To: blam

Coming soon to West Germany if the trend continues toward socialism.


7 posted on 04/08/2007 6:14:46 PM PDT by EyeGuy
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High taxes ?

Socialism ?

Communists ?


8 posted on 04/08/2007 6:17:07 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: EyeGuy

Apparently, West Germany already suffers greatly from the influx of East Germans. As I understand it, the unemployment has soared because of the load of job seekers from the East.


9 posted on 04/08/2007 6:19:09 PM PDT by bannie
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To: bannie
Eventually, Germany will even out again; but it will take time: Horrible damage was done.

Not with negative population growth they won't. Their total fertility rate is through the floorboards. They are toast inside of two generations. The muzzies will take Europe before we are gone.
10 posted on 04/08/2007 6:28:58 PM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (Current tagline is banned under hate speech laws.)
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To: WorkingClassFilth

Do they know the cause of the bad fertility rate?

:-(

I figured that the Germans would filter back in to fill the niches once they reappear.


11 posted on 04/08/2007 6:31:51 PM PDT by bannie
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To: blam

The trouble with East Germany is that it is dotted with 19th Century towns that have lost their reason to exist. The same thing happened to much of “small town middle America” in the last 70 years.

To make matters worse, much of the East is still suffering from the horrible ecological catastrophe known as communism. Terrible pollution with vicious toxic chemicals with take generations to erode through natural means.

However, this can be turned to the national advantage, by having the government buy up these ghost towns and their surroundings and converting them to nature conservatories. That is, to rebuild large forests instead of the tiny “volds” seen in the west.

Not as forest preserves, but as recreational forests that would not only help restore much of Germany’s depleted wildlife, but for national pride and enjoyment.

Then, after nature had cleaned up most of what the communists had contaminated, then they could start “sensible growth” back into those forests.


12 posted on 04/08/2007 6:39:03 PM PDT by Popocatapetl
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To: bannie
The same things that have destroyed the upcoming generations in the rest of Europe (and here):
1. The destruction of the traditional family unit.
2. No-strings attached, serial sexual relationships.
3. Prostitution, pornography, and the legitimization of homosexuals.
4. Abortion.

All of Europe is in a crisis of population decline. Only their ‘guest workers’ are growing in numbers through continued immigration and large birth rates. Here in the US, our native TFR is near zero. Slight positive rate to the national average is due to large families and birth rates of our immigrants.

No desire to marry, have families and shoulder responsibilities have very real consequences. You might say that we’re consuming our seed corn without regard to future crops. Abortion has killed 44 million fellow citizens in this country alone.

13 posted on 04/08/2007 6:43:28 PM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (Current tagline is banned under hate speech laws.)
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To: kittymyrib

I think you hit the nail on the head. Why is the government responsible for the economic health of—anything? The government CANNOT run an economy—case in point—the Soviet Union.

They could build up the infrastructure—the highways & railroads. but anything else, it’s up to the people to get education and produce.


14 posted on 04/08/2007 6:43:38 PM PDT by Forgiven_Sinner (Your children become what your are.)
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To: blam
"It's like the American Midwest after the gold rush. These are becoming ghost cities."

We're doing fine here in Columbus, thank you very much.

15 posted on 04/08/2007 6:45:56 PM PDT by buccaneer81 (Bob Taft has soiled the family name for the next century.)
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To: bannie
Eventually, Germany will even out again; but it will take time: Horrible damage was done.

Not with their birthrate. They are finished as the Muzzies take over.

16 posted on 04/08/2007 6:48:07 PM PDT by buccaneer81 (Bob Taft has soiled the family name for the next century.)
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To: bannie

“As I understand it, the unemployment has soared because of the load of job seekers from the East.”

Then they need to turn loose the greatest system of wealth creation yet devised: capitalism. Slash taxes, shed the nanny state and provide other business incentives.

The German people are highly capable and industrious..... well at least they used to be. Some social remedies are in order as well.


17 posted on 04/08/2007 7:01:50 PM PDT by EyeGuy
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To: Popocatapetl

Yeah, and sell the carbon credits from those preserves to AlGore to fob off on his hollywood friends.


18 posted on 04/08/2007 7:02:05 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (Prevent Glo-Ball Warming ... turn out the sun when not in use)
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To: kittymyrib

Post #4 well said.


19 posted on 04/08/2007 7:03:43 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Ben Franklin, we tried but we couldn't keep it.)
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To: Mr. Jeeves
Kind of like Michigan in the United States

And Massachusetts, Washington, New York, Maine, New Jersey, and now even California, where despite the best efforts of the illegals to overrun the place, population is SHRINKING, not gaining.
20 posted on 04/08/2007 7:04:37 PM PDT by OCCASparky (Steely-Eyed Killer of the Deep)
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