An good days you can see the island of Neuwerk from the mainland. On hazy and foggy days it is hidden somewhere in the Wadden Sea. Neuwerk is located in the Heligoland Bay, 15 kilometers northwest of Cuxhaven. About 30 people live on this patch of earth, surrounded by the North Sea. The island doesn’t have much variety to offer, but it does have peace and quiet and fresh air – and a school. The problem: There are no more students. The island school has been closed since 2019. This will not change in the foreseeable future because the children are missing. The Inselschule website says: “Neuwerk is urgently looking for families with children who want to live and work here. The youngest are looked after according to the childminder model, the school-age children can go to school here up to and including the 6th grade.”
The island of Neuwerk stands for more and more places in Germany. Places where there are no more children, schools are closed and finally the infrastructure suffers. The realization that the republic is getting older and aging is not new and the development cannot be stopped. Some of the large baby boomer generation have already settled into retirement, while others are about to. In a few years, they have completely disappeared from the labor market. What is new for many places and people, however, is the dynamic with which the topic of demography is reflected in concrete terms. While the population of Germany grew steadily after the Second World War because many children were born, in many places the shrinking has to be organized – such as in Neuwerk.
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