From 1950 to 1955 only ten of the world’s largest conurbations lost people, according to the UN (see chart). The condition from which Dessau-Rosslau suffers is increasingly common. What will Dessau-Rosslau be like in ten or 20 years’ time? “Smaller,” says Rolf Müller, a longtime resident, as he carries a box of groceries out of an Aldi supermarket. Everybody, from the city authorities to the man in the street, reckons the trend will continue. Since 2007 its population has dropped by almost 10,000, to 81,500. Dessau-Rosslau’s challenge is to manage decline. Many of the world’s cities are having to cope with rapid growth.
They too will probably be demolished and replaced by meadows. An abandoned school is succumbing to weeds. And the local planners have other buildings in their sights. So many prefabricated 1950s apartment buildings have been razed in this working-class district of Dessau-Rosslau, a city in eastern Germany, that the plants receive all the light and rain they need. IN LEIPZIGER TOR, people are giving way to grass, flowers and potatoes.
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