TRAUSNITZ, Germany - The face of Germany is changing - it's becoming more wrinkled.

At the same time, young Germans are leaving the countryside to pursue a life in the city. As a consequence, many rural villages will die out in the coming decades unless they start to find creative solutions.

In Bavaria, the regional capital Munich is growing by leaps and bounds. According to state figures, 1.6 million people will live in the city by 2028, up from 1.4 million today - an influx which will come from villages throughout the region that in turn will wither and die.

In Trausnitz, home to about 1,000 people on the far-eastern edge of the country about 35 kilometers from the Czech border, official state statistics predict that every fifth inhabitant will either have died or moved away by 2028.

But official statistics may be missing that the small hilly village could be bucking the regional trend.

There has been a virtual baby boom in Trausnitz. Last year, 15 children were born in the village, many more than any other year in the last two decades. Meanwhile, a young mayor has launched an ambitious plan that not only seeks to prevent people from leaving but aims to attract newcomers while providing for the village's aging population.

"I see my task not only as managing the descent - I fight for the future of the municipality," Martin Schwandner, the 33-year-old mayor said in the regional dialect some have confused with dogs barking.

When asked about the baby boom, the mayor, who himself had a child last year, said he was stumped for explanations. "Maybe it is because of the good economic situation in Germany right now," he said. "In our case, we always knew we wanted a second child, so it was the right time."

A proud 'Traunser'

When Schwandner took office in 2014, the municipal budget was in deep trouble. A hydroelectric power plant, the only significant local business, had been sold to a French energy company some years earlier, depriving the village of 98 percent of its commercial tax base.

Nevertheless, Schwandner set ambitious goals. He started campaigning for villagers to create a co-op so that people won't have to drive to the neighboring city for a pack of pasta. (Trausnitz has no supermarket, no butcher, no fishmonger or convenience store. It is home to just one bakery that only opens for a few hours on weekday mornings.) The co-op is now being financed and built by locals.

The mayor also proposed the building of a kindergarten so that parents won't have to drive their toddlers to the next-door town every day. With 15 newborns, the need is great. Plans have been drawn up for a €400,000 "land kindergarten" that will focus on outdoor activities and life in the countryside. It is currently awaiting federal funding.

"My biggest challenge," the mayor says, "is to make people like you stay."

I didn't. A proud "Traunser," I embody the mayor's problem.

I used to know the mayor when he was the goalkeeper for TSV Trausnitz, the local team, but these days TSV Trausnitz doesn't have enough players and it will merge with the arch-rivals from the next village over next season.

While I loved my village growing up there, there was no place to study. The closest university is 30 kilometers away and only offers degrees in engineering and business. I wanted to become a journalist and so I left to study in Cologne.

Strangers rarely come to this part of Bavaria. No wonder, there is nothing but green forested hills, medieval castles and recently wind turbines, thanks to the German energy transition.

Recently, excavations for fiber optic cables have scarred the pastoral idyll. It is part of Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to connect the countryside with the cities by providing nationwide broadband. "Otherwise, we can't talk about equal living conditions," she said.

The mayor would like to get more support from Munich, Berlin and Brussels. While more than half the current projects are financed by outside funds, he thinks more could be done - and not just in monetary terms.

"It's not just about promoting a broadband connection," he said. Seeing remote places such as Trausnitz as a backwater, or hinterland, that just needs a faster internet connection is to miss the point. People chose to live here because of the community.

"We can't prevent demographic change," Schwandner said. "We can only find ways to live well with it."

Reversing the flow

Schwandner has had some success in luring people back. Several families have returned home in the last few years, including Ivonne and Armin Kiener and their three young children who moved to a former farm belonging to Armin's parents. Three generations now live there. Although Armin has to commute 100 kilometers every day, it is worth it, the couple says.

"We moved here because it was important for us to live in the countryside where everyone knows everybody," said Ivonne, 35, who stays at home with the children.

A flier from the mayor's office advertises "A magnificent landscape, an impressive history and a lively community." But an additional benefit is the cost of living which is two-thirds of that of Munich.

Whatever their motivation, Schwandner would like to see more people return.

"If 10 percent come, that's enough for us," said Schwandner. "We want to preserve the character of the village."

Community spirit

Maria Hampl is 82-years-old but she understands the lure of the big city.

"The young must go on to study, and the workers have to commute," she said. That, however, leaves the elderly, who are often dependent on the help of others and Hampl cares for several seniors, visiting them daily and watering their plants.

"Older citizens should be able to live in Trausnitz for as long as possible," says the mayor, who has set up a neighborhood volunteer program to care for the elderly in a place without doctors or assisted living facilities.

"Some communities will fall by the wayside. Only those who react the fastest and best have a future" - Martin Schwandner, the mayor of Trausnitz

Schwandner believes that such community participation is key and he regularly holds town hall meetings. He has also set up a Trausnitz Facebook group, where he regularly posts updates on the co-op construction and other projects. Most adults in the village subscribe to the group.

He knows he's taking a risk with the investments - it is possible the municipality will have an empty kindergarten and a loss-making village shop.

But Schwandner feels here are no other options.

"Some communities will fall by the wayside," he said. "Only those who react the fastest and best have a future."