From our special correspondent in Forst – Germany’s Brandenburg is known as a dynamic federal state with a thriving economy. But in the small town of Forst near the Polish border, residents feel they have been left out of the economic success the rest of the state has encountered and many are likely to vote for far-right candidates in Sunday’s national elections.
FRANCE24
Issued on: 21/02/2025
By:Sébastian SEIBT
The economy in the town of Forst, Brandenburg, has been deeply affected by German reunification and a shift away from coal mining.
© Studio Graphique France Médias Monde
Entrepreneur Sebastian Kürten moved to Forst, a small town in eastern Germany, just before the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike the rest of the Brandenburg state, which is experiencing a boom in economic growth, Forst is littered with abandoned buildings.
One of these, an old religious-looking construction a stone’s throw from the town centre, is where Kürten and his partner in 2023 set up a vast creative co-working space.
With its floor full of state-of-the-art computers, sofas and small booths for quiet telephone calls, the Villa Digitalkultur looks slightly out of place in Forst. “In big towns there are plenty of coworking spaces but we did wonder whether we would find an audience here,” says Kürten, who runs his software company Mobanisto from the site.
For the moment, the Villa Digitalkultur has just three regulars. “It’s still a little bit short of our expectations,” Kürten adds.
An economic outlier
The local population in Forst are not the obvious target for a business targeting start-ups. Since German reunification in 1990 there has been a steady decline of inhabitants, particularly among young workers.
Entrepreneur Sebastian Kürten moved to Forst, a small town in eastern Germany, just before the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike the rest of the Brandenburg state, which is experiencing a boom in economic growth, Forst is littered with abandoned buildings.
One of these, an old religious-looking construction a stone’s throw from the town centre, is where Kürten and his partner in 2023 set up a vast creative co-working space.
With its floor full of state-of-the-art computers, sofas and small booths for quiet telephone calls, the Villa Digitalkultur looks slightly out of place in Forst. “In big towns there are plenty of coworking spaces but we did wonder whether we would find an audience here,” says Kürten, who runs his software company Mobanisto from the site.
For the moment, the Villa Digitalkultur has just three regulars. “It’s still a little bit short of our expectations,” Kürten adds.
An economic outlier
The local population in Forst are not the obvious target for a business targeting start-ups. Since German reunification in 1990 there has been a steady decline of inhabitants, particularly among young workers.
Map showing the location of Forst, a small town on Germany's border with Poland.
© FRANCE 24
The overall population has fallen by 30%, although the trend may be starting to reverse. “In recent years, more people have arrived than left but our main problem remains the significant ageing of the population,” says Simone Taubenek, Forst's independent mayor.
The community in the heart of the Lusatia region had an economy fuelled by fossil fuels until a decision to close all coal-fired power plants in Germany by 2030. Now it lags behind nearby towns of a comparable size. An article in German tabloid Bild in 2017 heaped praise on the neighbouring wealthy town of Schönefeld, home to Berlin airport, while questioning why more empty apartments in Forst weren’t being demolished.
Forst has also hit the headlines for its politics. In 2020 German magazine Spiegel said the town had “broken a political taboo” when its left-wing Die Linke party, which is historically popular in eastern Germany, agreed to form a brief political alliance with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) movement to jointly oppose certain local projects.
The overall population has fallen by 30%, although the trend may be starting to reverse. “In recent years, more people have arrived than left but our main problem remains the significant ageing of the population,” says Simone Taubenek, Forst's independent mayor.
The community in the heart of the Lusatia region had an economy fuelled by fossil fuels until a decision to close all coal-fired power plants in Germany by 2030. Now it lags behind nearby towns of a comparable size. An article in German tabloid Bild in 2017 heaped praise on the neighbouring wealthy town of Schönefeld, home to Berlin airport, while questioning why more empty apartments in Forst weren’t being demolished.
Forst has also hit the headlines for its politics. In 2020 German magazine Spiegel said the town had “broken a political taboo” when its left-wing Die Linke party, which is historically popular in eastern Germany, agreed to form a brief political alliance with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) movement to jointly oppose certain local projects.
The rise of the far right
The far-right group are an undeniably strong presence in Forst. In the 2024 European elections the AfD won more than 30% of the vote in the town and up to 50% at some polling stations. All of the locals interviewed by FRANCE 24 knew at least one person who had voted for the group.
“We were slightly apprehensive when we arrived here. We asked ourselves: ‘Have we come to Nazi country?” says Kürten. “I don’t want to minimise the phenomenon of the rise of the AfD but I can’t say I’ve encountered any outright hostility,” he adds, acknowledging he might have received less of a warm welcome if his skin was a different colour.
Sebastian Kürten, who moved to Forst in 2020, opened the Villa Digitalkultur coworking space with his partner in 2023.
© Sebastian Seibt, FRANCE 24
Mayor Taubenek does not see a link between the rise of the AfD and local economics. “The government’s health policy during the Covid-19 pandemic gave rise to a good deal of discontent, and the government’s stance on Ukraine and its migration policy have all caused a protest vote,” she says.
Outside of the Kaufhof, the town’s main shopping centre, one AfD voter, Karsten, says he supported the party because “the mainstream parties have done nothing for us and offer us no prospects".
“It's about time we put Germans first, not immigrants,” adds his friend, René.
Suzie says that she won’t be voting for AfD on Sunday but she won’t vote for any of the major traditional parties either. “We can’t solve everything only with green energy,” she says of the town’s economic problems.
The government has promised regions like Lusatia, which were largely dependent on coal and a former thriving textile industry, tens of billions of euros to support their “green transition.” But most locals said they were “waiting to see” evidence of green investments in Forst so far.
“A lot of people are very attached to the mining industry which provided a lot of jobs. For them coal is part of a local tradition,” says Kürten. “They feel abandoned by the government, which wants to go all out on renewable energy and there’s a certain hostility towards anything involving wind turbines or solar power plants.
Mayor Taubenek does not see a link between the rise of the AfD and local economics. “The government’s health policy during the Covid-19 pandemic gave rise to a good deal of discontent, and the government’s stance on Ukraine and its migration policy have all caused a protest vote,” she says.
Outside of the Kaufhof, the town’s main shopping centre, one AfD voter, Karsten, says he supported the party because “the mainstream parties have done nothing for us and offer us no prospects".
“It's about time we put Germans first, not immigrants,” adds his friend, René.
Suzie says that she won’t be voting for AfD on Sunday but she won’t vote for any of the major traditional parties either. “We can’t solve everything only with green energy,” she says of the town’s economic problems.
The government has promised regions like Lusatia, which were largely dependent on coal and a former thriving textile industry, tens of billions of euros to support their “green transition.” But most locals said they were “waiting to see” evidence of green investments in Forst so far.
“A lot of people are very attached to the mining industry which provided a lot of jobs. For them coal is part of a local tradition,” says Kürten. “They feel abandoned by the government, which wants to go all out on renewable energy and there’s a certain hostility towards anything involving wind turbines or solar power plants.
Abandoned fabric workshops along the canal that runs through the town of Forst.
© Sebastian Seibt, FRANCE 24
A meeting place
Kürten does not regret his decision to “escape the noise and the crowds of the big city” and move to Forst.
“What other people see as disadvantages, I see as opportunities,” he says. “For example, all the empty buildings mean that property prices are low here. My partner and I would never have been able to rent a space of this size in Berlin for a project like Villa Digitalkultur.”
Their project is not just a coworking space. They organise film viewings for young people and “repair” evenings where anyone can bring objects they want to repair and work on them together as a team. Their goal is to “provide a space and an excuse for locals to get together”, Kürten says.
This is something the town needs, says Ralph, a regular at the repair evenings. In Forst, “when people come home from work they go into their houses and don’t step foot outside again”, he says.
“We maybe have a few restaurants here but there’s no bar here anymore where we can get a drink that isn’t too expensive and catch up,” adds Björn, another regular at Villa Digitalkultur.
They agree that the outlook in Forst tends towards “resignation and seeing the worst in everything” – a sense of pessimism that may well fuel the extremist vote in Sunday's parliamentary elections.
Although Mayor Taubenek says this defeatist outlook is mistaken. “If you ask the population, some of them will say that they've been left behind in Brandenburg but there are jobs,” she says. “In fact, there's a lack of communication from local business about the fact that economic activity exists here.”
This article was adapted from the original in French.
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