18-05-2025
Two weeks' free accommodation offered by German city in bid to attract new residents
An eastern German city is offering two weeks of free lodgings in a bid to attract new residents as it continues to grapple with depopulation some 35 years after reunification.
Successful applicants will be eligible to spend two weeks in a furnished flat in Eisenhüttenstadt, some 100km (62 miles) southeast of Berlin, from September 6-20, the city administration said.
Like many other regions in the former communist East Germany, Eisenhüttenstadt has seen a sharp population decline in the decades after German reunification, with younger people in particular moving away to look for work elsewhere.
City official Julia Basan noted that the current population has declined to some 24,000 in recent years, from around 50,000 in 1990.
Eisenhüttenstadt was initially designed for a population of 30,000.
Located on Germany's eastern edge on the border with Poland, Eisenhüttenstadt was founded in 1950 to provide accommodation for workers at a newly established steelworks.
