In Weißwasser, in Saxony, bare trunks stand in the ponds that border the town, like a kind of memorial. Lignite mining has caused the trees to wither. And the population growth of this town in Upper Lusatia follows an equally dramatic trajectory. Since reunification, the town – once known for its glassblowers – has lost more than half of its population. It now has only 16,000 inhabitants, against more than 38,000 in the past. And the average age is rising rapidly. To reverse the trend, the city would need women – but they are scarce.
In many parts of eastern Germany, the proportion of young women in the population is below the national average. If the exodus of the 1990s has slowed down, men are still very often in excess in Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia, according to a survey by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk.
The effects of this demographic imbalance are particularly felt in Upper Lusatia: in Weißwasser, the birth rate continues to decline. In 2010, 137 babies were born in the town, ten years later, there were only 98 births. And if we are to believe the Lausitz Monitor, a set of polls conducted each year among the inhabitants of Lusatia, the trend does not seem to be reversing anytime soon. Twenty-seven percent of women aged 16 to 39 say they are likely to leave the area in the next two years. The representatives of this age group are much less satisfied with the quality of life in the region than their male counterparts.
“Lusatian influencer”
The example of Tonie Jahnke, 22, helps to understand the reasons for this dissatisfaction. Although she was born after reunification, the young woman, who lives in Weißwasser, sees herself as “a child of the GDR”. His family history perfectly illustrates the upheavals that many East Germans experienced after the fall of the wall.
His grandparents had moved to Weißwasser to work in the open pit mine and in the local brewery. But the brewery closed its doors in 1991, and the plant will be shut down by 2038. His aunt had to abandon her farm to allow the extraction of lignite. “Another life destroyed”, comments the young woman. The apartment in which she grew up was “reconverted” a few years ago – an understatement for the demolition of several blocks of abandoned houses. “It’s as if they erased part of my identity”, confides Tonie, contemplating the pines that now stand in place of her house.
The young woman nevertheless found a new home in the city’s ice hockey team, the Foxes of Lusatia. For years, the team has been a positive landmark for many residents. While most of her classmates left the region to study, Tonie turned down a place in Berlin and chose to stay in Weißwass