Hoyerswerda

The Shrinking City

The city of Hoyerswerda was the paragon of socialist urban construction in the former GDR. In East-Germany, the industrially built, prefabricated residential blocks were considered the epitome of modernity, functionality, and progress.

Today, the name Hoyerswerda has become a synonym for radical social and urban change, owing to the fact that Hoyerswerda became a portent of the modern era after German reunification. With the utopia been shattered, it feels empty and haunted. Hoyerswerda, now the fastest shrinking German city, provides a symbol for the radical social transformations of the beginning of the twenty-first century.