Academic discussions often refer to the German urban development program "Stadtumbau Ost" Urban Regeneration East as a showcase example of proactive policies on urban shrinkage. The paper discusses how this program came into being. Based on expert interviews and document analysis, it demonstrates that the primary cause for "Stadtumbau Ost" was not so much a new development policy for depopulated cities, but rather an attempt to manage tackle an acute crisis of large housing companies. These exerted enormous influence on policy-making and made sure that new policies were designed in a way that would benefit their interests. At the same time, the new program was based on established federal funding policies which made the integration of planning principles vital. The outcome is a hybrid, combining a market shakeout with visions of sustainable planning.