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In Ovenhausen, digitization is being promoted from a former rectory.

In the old dining room in the style of the 50s there is now a modernly furnished corner with laptops and projector system.

On June 19, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier from Berlin was brought into the room by video via this screen.

On the day of digitization, the head of state chatted with citizens of the “digital village” Ovenhausen in the Höxter district.

"Networking with one another in order to stay connected - we made this experience particularly intense during the pandemic," said the Federal President, who comes from Detmold in the neighboring district of Lippe.

The fact that Ovenhausen became aware of Bellevue Palace is due to several pilot projects for digitization that are being promoted in the Höxter district.

For example, a village app, a digital platform that can be used to disseminate news, neighborhood help or contact and service offers.

"The villages in the Höxter district do not live behind the moon and also not in digital nirvana," says project manager Heidrun Wuttke from the Diemel-Egge-Weser community association, which coordinates the projects.

The 55-year-old political scientist initially launched the “Dorffunk” app in Ovenhausen.

This is part of the “Smart Country Side” model project, which also included the development of Internet sites and WLAN offers.

The EU, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the two districts involved, Lippe and Höxter, gave 850,000 euros for this.

When it started in April 2019, only 80 of the 1030 people from Ovenhausen were registered with the “village radio”.

There are now 630. And a further 700 are watching from outside what is going on in Ovenhausen - students or former residents who now live elsewhere but do not want to lose touch with their homeland.

The savings bank must replace online banking

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A follow-up project has now been running in the Höxter district for a year.

After a selection process, 30 out of 124 village communities were selected to test and use further digital applications.

For this purpose, so-called village digital guides are trained first, who are primarily intended to teach older residents how to use the Internet, online banking and digital passwords.

The regional adult education centers are also active here.

Because the banks and savings banks are thinning out their offerings, and Ovenhausen now only has one ATM.

There is uniform IT equipment in all villages, from laptops to projectors, with which a learning and media corner can be set up - as in the Ovenhausen rectory.

The project called “Dorf.Zukunft.Digital” is funded with almost 224,000 euros by the European Agricultural Fund for the development of rural areas and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The local municipalities assume a third of the costs.

“For several years now, politics at the federal and state level have rediscovered the importance of rural areas,” says project manager Wuttke.

Because when shops, pubs and bank branches close, many younger people are drawn away from their home villages.

The old, on the other hand, would be left behind by all innovations.

Unless you teach them the Internet, connect village and church parishes digitally and advise potential new citizens on a virtual platform.

The village of Istrup, which belongs to the city of Brakel, would also like to make itself fit for the future with the EU project “Dorf.Zukunft.Digital”.

Monika Vogt is one of the few older people there who is already familiar with information technology and the Internet.

"I have a few friends who don't know what their cell phone can do," says the 65-year-old graphic designer.

As a so-called “pilot”, she works to ensure that more elderly residents are connected to the digital world.

She is also active in the local committee and fights for active village life and more regionalism there.

Stefan Weskamp is also involved in Istrup to set up a "village radio" app for the place with 650 people.

"We can't miss the train towards digitization in the villages," says Weskamp, ​​who this year built a house in Istrup with his partner.

The 31-year-old banker is convinced that “there is a trend from the cities back to rural areas”.

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From Istrup you can be in the cities of Paderborn, Höxter, Steinheim and Warburg in around 20 minutes, reports Weskamp.

In the village there is developed building land for 50 and 60 euros, in Paderborn, however, you have to expect significantly more.

Because of the low prices, there are also many newcomers from outside and also returnees who want to return to their home region after years of hiking and apprenticeship.

Because with large companies such as Phoenix Contact, Stiebel-Eltron, Wentus, Symrise and Optibelt, there are also interesting employers in the region that borders Lower Saxony and Hesse.

Their employees can also keep themselves up to date via "village radio" on business trips to China or on vacation in Mallorca.

60 refugees also benefited from WiFi

While the contacts in the villages are currently limited due to the fight against the corona pandemic, many things can be organized digitally.

"The chat at the garden fence is rarely taking place at the moment," says Andreas Knoblauch-Flach, head of the local adult education center.

The users of the “Dorffunk” app could be reached quickly at any time via pop-up messages.

Thus, even in the Corona crisis, there is the chance to maintain an attractive and communal country life and to help each other.

The sense of community evoked by the Ovenhausen residents was evidently a blessing as early as the beginning of 2016, when around 60 refugees had to be accommodated in the Ovenhausen primary school.

At that time, a team of more than 20 people spontaneously formed and took on the care of the refugees for almost two years.

Thanks to the free Wi-Fi network between the rectory and the rectory, which had already been introduced through the “Smart Country Side” project, asylum seekers were able to maintain contact with their homeland, reports Church Councilor Hans-Werner Gorzolka, who was able to chat with the Federal President in June with other village representatives.

The 66-year-old is one of the drivers of the local projects.

As a former department head in the administration of the Höxter district, the active East Westphalia also knows where the funding from the European Union, the federal government and the state can be found.

If you can keep young people with their help and offer families a future, there could be a renaissance of rural areas.

"We are now on the right track with 30 villages in the Höxter district," says Gorzolka.

"And we hope that many more will make their way."