Abstract: In the 1990s, shrinking cities began to spread from developed countries in Europe and the United States to the former socialist countries in Eastern Europe, of which the most typical case is the eastern cities after German reunification. Based on the research about the shrinking cities in East Germany after reunion, this paper focused on the phenomena of reducing population and economic recession attributed to urban shrinkage. The urban shrinkage is accompanied with a large number of factories and companies corrupts, labor markets declines, total population and birth rates decreases, as well as soaring unemployment, etc. The research showed that the shrinkage of eastern German cities is largely due to political systems reform after German reunification. In addition, the urban shrinkage was intensified by a series of reactions such as large-scale emigration, radical privatization, sub-urbanization and transitional subsidies. In the end, the paper made a discussion and reflection on the urban changes caused by the free-fall reform in eastern cities after reunion under the influence of the Washington Consensus.