ABSTRACT

The aging of the population is a special feature of the demographic change and an unavoidable development of the next decades which poses a great challenge to post-modern societies. The response to it depends on physical and human resources of the respective society but also on the creativity of the people. In particular local politicians play a vital role in countering negative developments. Based on studies of expert-interviews with local politicians in East and West Germany the contribution shows how demographic changes are encountered in selected communes. On the agenda of the interviews was: the physical and social situation of old people, their integration into the society, age segregation, age-just infrastructure, relationship of the generations to each other, role of volunteer work, relevance of the topic “the ageing of the population” in the media.

Age is subjected to a change: the aging people are healthier, longer active and more mobile than formerly. Also this circumstance plays increasingly more often a role in local politics. In this respect attention will also be paid in the contribution to the topic “Population aging as Chance”.

Key words: older people, demographic change, local politicians.

Introduction

At the latest in the debates about the financing of pensions, it became clear what kind of problems Germany was facing. The German population is declining, fewer and fewer children are being born and at the same time people are becoming older and older.