Thomas Elkeles, Jens A. Forkel, Dominik Röding: Quality of Life and Remembrance in rural communities in North-East Germany 1 PAPER SUBMISSION: LIFE QUALITY AND REMEMBRANCE IN RURAL AREAS IN NORTH-EAST GERMANY Jens A. Forkel, Thomas Elkeles, University of Applied Sciences Neubrandenburg Fachbereich Gesundheit, Pflege, Management Brodaer Str. 2, 17033 Neubrandeburg forkel@hs-nb.de, elkeles@hs-nb.de Dominik Röding University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld Faculty of Business and Health Am Stadtholz 24, 33609 Bielefeld dominik.röding@fh-bielefeld.de 1 INTRODUCTION The demographic change of rural areas in the member states of the EU is widely perceived as a crisis affecting the inner infrastructures of modern federal societies [1]. Germany as one of the economically strongest states is nevertheless affected by this crisis too. Although the most effective agricultural industries developed in the North of Germany, the process accelerated in the past 20 years, which is characterized by an increasing thinning and centralization of nearly all public services, overageing, a poor work-life-balance by the means of unemployment, educational chances and the need to commute great distances. The structural deficits in the North-East of Germany are furthermore highlighted by the political transitions after the reunification of Germany. The transfer of a socialist collective agriculture into the conditions of an industrialized free market economy left the majority of the staff of the agricultural cooperatives (LPG) unemployed and with little employment and educational chances behind. The University of Applied Sciences Neubrandenburg is embedded within this area of one of the weakest infrastructures in Germany. Accordingly the research of the most departments at the university is determined to deal with the challenges concerning the social, political and cultural implications for a modern community-planning and an appropriate theory of rural development once leading to a local Center of Competence of Peripheral Development. The most recent step taken in this direction is the start of a pilot project for a model of socio-cultural intervention in communities <500 inhabitants in the county Mecklenburgische Seenplatte in May 2013. The project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the SILQUA- Program [2], takes into account the empirical and theoretical results of the preceding research at the Department of Health, Care, Management namely the so called Rural-Health-Study [3]. 2 THE RURAL-HEALTH-STUDY 1973, 1994, 2008 The study aimed to extend existing knowledge about the relationship between the change in living conditions, conduct of life as well as health and quality of life. Therefore the study was designed as a longitudinal study (trend and panel study) and as a cross-sectional study. Database were three datasets of surveys in 14 rural communities in north-eastern Germany 1973 (N=3603), 1994 (N=2155), 2004/08 (N=1246) and biographical interviews (2009/10) with selected inhabitants in these communities.