Facts Wanzleben

Selected Key Data

Population

Over one third of all jobs in Wanzleben were cut between 1998 and 2003. At the same time as this development, Wanzleben was forced to cope with a significant drop in its population. However, this was no new phenomenon for the city, as it had experienced a continual fall in population figures during the GDR era also. People had always moved from the flat plains to the big cities or conurbations. However, the numbers of those leaving rose sharply after the wall fell. Whereas Wanzleben had 6,269 registered inhabitants in 1989, there were only 5,367 left in 2005. A conspicuous feature is the drop in inhabitants under 18. While there were 1,861 in 1995, there were only 1,666 left in Wanzleben in 2,000, and just five years later, the number of young people in the town had fallen still further to 1,372.

Municipal Boundaries

Because of increased suburbanisation from the early 1990s, the cities have lost a considerable proportion of their inhabitants and tax revenues to the surrounding communities. In order to dilute the impact of these losses, a gradual process of incorporation has increased the municipal areas in size, sometimes significantly so.

The coloured shape on the map symbolises the expansion of the city in 1990, the outer line shows the boarder of the municipal area of 2010.

Housing Situation

In 2001, in order to be able to draw on funding from the “Urban Redevelopment East” programme, Wanzleben passed an urban development concept that, under the guiding principle of “qualitative instead of quantitative growth”, was targeted at sustainably strengthening and developing the town’s housing structure. Wanzleben should rise to become a “family-friendly city” with multifaceted housing forms from single apartments to generational houses, the expansion of municipal services and cooperation between the city and its citizens. In this framework, the plan was to primarily gentrify those areas of the city with the highest inhabitant density and the best infrastructural networks. This is where impetus was expected for the neighbouring districts. In general, there were plans for a compression of the cores, while at the same time cutting unused housing space on the edges of estates.

Housing Situation in Wanzleben (2/2010):
Housing Stock: 2,400
Surplus Housing: 200 / 8 Percent
Housing Demolitian since 2001/02: 60

Industry

Over one third of all jobs in Wanzleben were cut between 1998 and 2003. One year later, the unemployment rate was 24 percent. The diagram illustrates the radical economic structural reform: Large industrial combines were forced to close, and even where smaller companies came along and still produce today, the often significantly increased output figures require only a fraction of the workforce once needed.

In the Meantime by drawing on its business estate, Wanzleben was able to develop and become a good location for small to medium-sized firms, in particular in the transport industry and in the secondary processing of agricultural goods. There are also still some larger farming businesses. Environmental and waste management companies have settled here. Wanzleben has also taken the path of energetic urban renewal and, in 2008, launched Germany’s largest project for solar heat generation; this was preceded in 2004 by a biogas plant in Wanzleben for inexpensive power and heat supply.

Relocating and Commuting

In the 1990s, suburbanisation affected all the IBA cities. At the same time, people, especially those from the former industrial centres, began to move to West Germany. The populations of the large cities of Halle (Saale) and Magdeburg have increased minimally in recent times, mainly due to migration from Saxony-Anhalt. In the meantime, the improved transportation network allows for longer journeys to and from work and the number of commuters is climbing.

The interactive tool "Relocating and commuting" visualises this range of topics for all IBA cities.

Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (IfL), Leipzig 2010 Data: Günter Herfert, design/programming: Sebastian Specht

Sources for the statistical details: Ministry of Regional Development and Transport Saxony-Anhalt; Raumbeobachtungssystem Sachsen-Anhalt (RABE); Statistisches Landesamt Sachsen-Anhalt; Urban Development Concept Wanzleben 2006; Urban Development Concept Wanzleben 2007; 1989 GDR statistics; www.iba-monitor.de; Status 11/2009