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Winners of contest to live in depopulated Soviet-era German city announced
The Guardian
|August 22, 2025
An innovative competition launched by a town in formerly communist east Germany to curb depopulation by offering a fortnight of free housing has stunned officials with its success.
The contest attracted more than 1,700 applications to try living in Eisenhüttenstadt, a Soviet-style town on the Polish border near Berlin that was built around a steel plant after the second world war.
"We are very surprised by the reach our Probewohnen (trial living) project has had," Julia Basan, the economic development officer behind the campaign, said.
This story is from the August 22, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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