Urban redevelopment is the urban planning response to a far-reaching structural crisis in the new federal states. Neighborhoods, districts, and sometimes even entire city centers are beginning to become desolate and are increasingly losing their vibrancy and urbanity due to significant population losses. Vacant housing has become a common sight in many East German cities, and shrinking urban structures are the dominant theme in urban development policy. In particular, large housing estates have faced enormous pressure for change since reunification and have partially lost their balanced population structure. But what are the reasons for this negative development, and how are cities attempting to manage the shrinkage process? To what extent can funding be used to steer development processes aimed at the long-term stabilization of large housing estates?.