Twenty years after reunification, many East German municipalities were challenged to respond to the ongoing exodus of the able-bodied population with innovative urban development strategies. While the focus in the years following reunification was on the modernisation of buildings, industry, services and infrastructure in the cities and municipalities, the "soft factors" now came into focus: social, liveable and sustainable environments that could counteract migration and stop the emptying of the periphery. The Landesbausparkassen Ost commissioned the IZT to present "sustainable urban concepts" for eastern Germany in a study. The title of the new research project was: "New identities - shaping gaps".

Twenty years after reunification, there were still serious differences between the development of East and West Germany. In particular, the massive exodus of often younger people has left gaps in East German municipalities that were and still are new in terms of scale and structure. Politicians have shaped and supported the transformation process in East Germany with numerous funding programmes, whereby the focus in the first 15 years was on the "hardware", i.e. the modernisation and expansion of industry and services, roads, energy and water supply and buildings. Gradually, the realisation took hold that further-reaching activities in the area of "software", i.e. the creation of social, liveable and sustainable environments, were necessary in order to counteract migration, primarily to West Germany but also to the centres of East Germany, and to stop the periphery from running dry.

On behalf of LBS Landesbausparkassen Ost, the IZT carried out an explorative study that compiled and sorted existing knowledge, involved the experts for further structuring and contouring and, on this basis, developed solution strategies that were presented by LBS in a network with other organisations and personalities.