No babies please, we're German

[Mario Feldberg]

BERLIN (AFP) - Germans have stopped having children -- and the number of couples opting for a childless life is rising every year to the consternation of politicians and employers in the eurozone's biggest economy.

While figures released by the French government this month showed France's population could balloon from its current level of 60.2 million to 75 million by 2050, the
United Nations predicts that Germany's is set to plummet from 82 million to 70.8 million in the same period.

"I am nearly 35 years old, I am married and I haven't got any children," said Donna, participating in a recent discussion on the Internet site of women's magazine Brigitte.

"There is no particular reason apart from the fact that I have never imagined myself having any."

A study by Germany's federal institute for demographic research showed that 26 percent of men and 15 percent of women aged between 20 and 39 do not want to start a family, a sharp rise since 1992 when the figures were 12 percent of men and 10 percent of women.

"There is an increasing belief that not having children is the ideal way of life," the authors of the study concluded.

This growing trend has many people in Germany wringing their hands.

With a rapidly ageing population, Germany is now distancing itself from its European neighbours in other ways too.

German women, for example, want an average of 1.7 children compared with at least two in most other European countries. Forty percent of university-educated women of child-bearing age are without a child.

"Abandoning the idea of children is abandoning the idea of life," Otto Schily, the radical lawyer turned German interior minister, said recently. He should know: he has two daughters.

For many women however having children means abandoning their careers.

Working mothers complain that all too often they are seen as "Rabenmutter", which translates as "cruel mothers" -- women who dump their kids in childcare so they can pursue their personal goals.

Yet in a country where schools generally finish for the day at 1:30 pm, balancing work and children is a headache.

"Places in creches are hard to get, and expensive," said Andrea, 35, in the Brigitte chat room. "I just can't imagine myself having a child, staying at home and becoming financially dependent on my partner or the State."

The German government has pledged to create 230,000 daycare places by 2010 and the idea of extending the school day is under discussion in some regions.

Germans also tend to be students longer than in other countries, with many still enrolled at university and college until they are at least 30.

This lengthy study period is "a reliable method of contraception," said the minister responsible for families, Renate Schmidt.

The trend towards childlessness is recent -- until the start of the 1990s almost 60 percent of women aged between 25 and 29 had a baby. The figure has plunged to 29 percent today.

Many recent studies have pinpointed psychological factors as putting the brake on the desire to start a family.

"In Germany, having children isn't sexy," said Marie-Luise Lewicki, the editor of Eltern (Parents) magazine.

"We don't just need creches and day-long schooling, we need a change in society," she said.

The federal institute for demographic research said the main reason cited for not having children was the lack of either a partner or a stable relationship, which accounted for 83 percent of respondents.

However, nearly 60 percent said concerns for the future of their potential children had dissuaded them.

In a different study, released by the Forsa polling institute in January, only 29 percent of women pointed to the financial burden of a child and only 39 percent named not wanting to give up their career as their reason for not having children.

Having a family "seems to have become an abstract idea", the federal institute concluded.

It seems that the French (and the rest of Europe) will no longer have to live in fear.
We are dying out

 

[OrpheusPrime]

Perhaps the german women should loose some weight and stop wearing so much black make-up/piercings.. But seriously, I was quite dissapointed with the females I met on my last two trips to Germany.

 

[Hitro]

So are you already reproducing for the Fatherland, Comrade Mario?

The federal institute for demographic research said the main reason cited for not having children was the lack of either a partner or a stable relationship, which accounted for 83 percent of respondents.

However, nearly 60 percent said concerns for the future of their potential children had dissuaded them.

Applies to me.

 

[HighlandWarrior]

what's the point of living if you're not going to have children? children are the best part of life.

 

[OrpheusPrime]

what's the point of living if you're not going to have children? children are the best part of life.

Disagree. Completely. I love my kids, don't get me wrong. But I had a LOT more fun when I was single and even when I was married, without em.

 

[Elrohir]

From child-bearing machine to mostly child-less in 70 years. That's Germany for you....

Actually I've been reading up on this, and apparently it's a widespread problem in most Westernized countries. Europe is going to have to import something like a billion people by 2050 to keep it's current worker/retiree ratio stable until then. (And with the French working fewer and fewer hours, they'll need more workers )

 

[stormbind]

Oh German: The language of love ...

 

[Hitro]

Oh German: The language of love ...

Ich liebe Dich auch, stormi!

 

[SeleucusNicator]

The more socially liberal a place is, the more likely it is to have this problem.

The "blue states" in America have a similar issue, but you don't hear much about it because the US is actually on track to gain population, and a a relatively high rate. Why? Because the "red states" are reproductive machines and because we have more immigrants coming in.

 

[OrpheusPrime]

We have sooo many immingrants coming in, legally and illegally, we could take a slowdown in birth rate. The idea that liberals don't like to reproduce is a really funny though. Not saying its right or wrong, just funny.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

The idea that liberals don't like to reproduce is a really funny though. Not saying its right or wrong, just funny.

There's significant statistical data to back it up.

 

[Oruc]

they should stop teaching sex education, all the teenage pregnancies will make up for it.

 

[Hitro]

SN is right, the more liberal and the more educated people are the less likely they are to have many children.

 

[AceChilla]

they should stop teaching sex education, all the teenage pregnancies will make up for it.

That's exatcly what they are doing in the red states. And let in loads of immigrants, the long term consequences of that nobody knows.

Japan also has this problem btw.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

One must be wary of social engineering to raise birthrates. Many European nations, if I'm not mistaken, have recently, in the past 2-3 years, offered incentives to child-rearing, such as greater benefits and tax credits, and these haven't seemed to have any effect.

The funniest case, in my opinion, is Fascist Italy. Mussolini saw a study that said that fat women have more children than skinny women. So, what did he do? He started promoting a massive propaganda campaign to encourage women to get fat, complete with medals. MEDALS for eating lots of pasta. Fascism at its finest, truly.

Oh, and it didn't work. There's evidence it may have raised birth rates slightly just before WWII, but the loss of men in that conflict nullified any effect it had.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

I have always found it interesting that the French birthrate has been able to stay relatively stable while the rest of Europe plummets in that regard. Especially since France had almost no growth for the 150 years or so before WWII (Well some, but not the burgeoning populations that Britain and Germany had).

However, I wonder which segments of French society are having all the children. Is it across the board, or is it mostly minorities?

 

[Elrohir]

That's exatcly what they are doing in the red states. And let in loads of immigrants, the long term consequences of that nobody knows.

Japan also has this problem btw.

Actually, California's Open Border and Sanctuary City policies let in at least as many immigrants as any other state, probably more.

 

[OrpheusPrime]

I think the problem is that more liberal women don't put out enough. But thats just a theory. I had to go south to find myself a sweet sothern bell in 'red' states. Seriously though. When I was in college in Mass. there were so many prudy chicks. Enter my graduate years at Univerity of Georgia, night and day diffirence, sex is just uh.. more free? easier? I don't know.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

Put out enough? Putting out has nothing to do with it. It is mostly about differences in family planning. Contraception is more acceptable in most liberal circles, and that is combined with the fact that "liberal", "career-oriented" women, then choose not to have a child, which they can easily do with their high contraception usage.

 

[Hitro]

I think the problem is that more liberal women don't put out enough. But thats just a theory. I had to go south to find myself a sweet sothern bell in 'red' states. Seriously though. When I was in college in Mass. there were so many prudy chicks. Enter my graduate years at Univerity of Georgia, night and day diffirence, sex is just uh.. more free? easier? I don't know.

A lack of children and a lack of sex isn't exactly the same thing.