The World From Berlin Germany's Vanishing Act
Germany's annual number of births has dropped by 30,000, or four percent, in just one year. While scientists and politicians have been aware of the country's falling birth rate for decades, nobody expected the trend to accelerate so sharply. Sombre predictions about the likely long-term effects on the economy are compounded by further demographic research suggesting that a number of towns in northern and eastern Germany are destined to disappear altogether.
The data is being discussed in most of Germany's papers this week. Many commentators emphasize that the trends are irreversible and that shock statements and calls to action are nothing more than rhetoric. There is however a basic consensus in the editorials that politicians can emphasize the urgency of the situation as much as they want -- but ultimately, they are the ones who failed to act when there was still time to do anything.
"Let's not wallow in our misery," writes a commentator in the conservative daily Die Welt. The paper insists that it's simply "too late to complain" about Germany's demographic slump, which might have been averted 30 years ago, but is now "proceeding like clockwork." The editorial is full of images of state powerlessness. The only thing that can possibly stop some regions in Germany being "reclaimed by nature," the commentator suggests, is not a "government program" but rather "family bonds and love for the country" beating the demographic odds.
An editorial in Germany's Financial Times also takes the sober view that it is simply no use becoming too upset about the declining birth rate now: "People all over the country are crying out that the demographic state of the nation is a catastrophe, and they're right -- but their cries won't change the fact that the catastrophe has already occurred." Rather than making a case for a return to traditional family values, however, the commentator advocates "a conscious and deliberate paradigm shift" towards government policies that not only create incentives for Germans to choose parenthood, but also make it easier for migrants to become German citizens.
The tabloid Bild devotes practically the whole paper to the subject of babies -- although unsurprisingly it opts for a more populist approach. Its commentator sympathizes with those young women who grew up being told to choose a career over children, and who are now being blamed for Germany's demographic problems. He also has understanding words for those women who went against the grain and became mothers anyway: "In the past if a woman chose motherhood and put on a little weight," he writes, "people immediately treated her as if she were radioactive." The paper has also devoted the entire back page to the subject, with a huge picture of a baby surrounded by words weighing up the pros ("joy and happiness") and the cons ("children cost on average 107,136 euros to raise to adulthood") of having a child.
