My first thought, too. I am a little better than half way through the book. Every FReeper should read it.
Posted on 01/05/2007 1:26:28 PM PST by shrinkermd
BERLIN -- Germany's population fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2006 and recorded the biggest drop since the country's reunification in 1990, the government said Friday, days after launching financial incentives designed to stall falling birth rates.
The number of births, meanwhile, was the lowest since World War II.
At the end of 2006, the number of people living in Germany stood at an estimated 82.31 million, 130,000 below the total at the end of 2005, the Federal Statistics Office said.
Germany's population grew in 2001 and 2002. But since then, a birth rate among the lowest in Europe has contributed to widening annual declines of 5,000, 31,000 and 63,000. Last year, deaths outnumbered births by 150,000, compared to 144,000 in 2005, the statistics office said.
...A recent government study forecast that the population could fall as low as 69 million by 2050.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Yes, in the last election I noted both Merkel and Schroeder were childless, had married more than once and seemed successful and perpetual careerists in the good sense of the word. I now note that Schroeder has remarried once again to a younger woman with children and they have adopted a child or children.
My point is the "boomer" German is not a great deal different than the "boomer" American in that they focus on personal development and success at the expense of family living and its requirements.
There are exceptions I note the lady socialist candidate for Chirac's job is not only very good looking but has four children and only a live in boyfriend. Again, what seems to be avoided is serious. long term commitments to families and family living. (Sorry I can't remember her name--too long, too French and too much for an old man)
My first thought, too. I am a little better than half way through the book. Every FReeper should read it.
Since we can presume that the population of Turks in Germany has increased, that means that the population of native Germans has probably shrunk even more than this article indicates.
My thought too; how many births are to ethnic Germans?
They better be getting their wives pregnant because the land is more or less useless without people. I know in many rural towns (both East and West) the sewerage system is not working because the population decrease has been so severe that the water flow is now not adequate in the sewers to operate the system!
I have a friend in the right-to-life movement in Germany. According to her, Germany's abortion rate is 1 in 10 (which they consider horrible) whereas America's rate is somewhere between 1 in 3 and 1 in 4....
I think the Roman Catholic half of Germany, mostly in the West, has kept the laws more restricted than in the USA.
Please see my post above.
Since Roe v. Wade, the USA has always had a far higher abortion rate than Germany.
...because I'm just that public-spirited sort of guy...
GREAT BOOK. Steyn said it best. 100 years from now Europe will look like a Neutron bomb hit it. All buildings, no people.
I read in some of thoses areas wolves are back after 100 years.
Two pack of black wolves now living around berlin where they haven't been seen since, I think the 1400's.
I was in Germany a few months ago. The change from when we lived there 30 years ago is noticable. It seems even the smallest town has it's "Turkish" community. They are everywhere. And a lot of things and places seem much more "run down".
I did some exploring by car and train in the far eastern parts of Germany last summer, those "God forsaken" parts you mentioned. It's very beautiful territory, the landscape reminding me very much of the hillier parts of New York or Pennsylvania.
It is true that there is a depopulation going on...as there are very few jobs (20% + unemployment in the country and small towns) but the villages are gorgeous.
Lots of "Fachtwerk" (timber-frame) houses, with unique patterns, depending on the region. This was the most Lutheran part of Germany, Saxony being its center.
Probably a majority now, due to the heavy hand of Communism (they were after all the most strict communists next to North Korea 20 years ago) are atheist or agnostic...but there are a few Christians around. Everyone too is very proud of their Christian heritage...and you better not say anything bad about Martin Luther to anyone on the train!
Eastern Germany is being depopulated, but, unlike the Western side of Germany, it is not being filled up with immigrants, Turkish or from any other Islamic people. There really are so few jobs, so its not attractive to immigrants, and it just reminds one of the American rust belt times 10..... When you travel by train for instance it's common for something like 1 in 5 train stations of small towns to be closed and covered in graffiti, a really sad thing, especially given that the countryside is so pretty.
Thuringia the state next to Saxony, has huge timber resources....with a higher percentage of trees than any other German state. Wartburg castle is here, where Luther hid out...its supposed to be one of the best preserved castles in Europe--having never been successfully conquered.
In any event, it's a beautiful country--and folk were universally friendly to this American. I'd encourage people to visit this part of Germany, the regions around Leipzig and Dresden, as its a bit off the beaten path of typical tourism.
What's the rates among Germans?
Laws of not, the Ossies "enjoyed" very liberal abortion laws, and to an extent the unifoed government has accomodated their values. But you are right about the general born after WWII. Many gave up on any future beyond their lifetime. Of course, the strict divorce laws encouraged people to live without marriage. A divorce really hits the life-style of each partner. And kids? Vacations to Fuji instead. Who needs family if you have the state to take care of your old age?
yeah, I've told everyone I know who has the slightest interest in the survival of our civilization that Steyn's book is absolutely required reading.
Turks everywhere? You must have been in the west. In the eastern parts of Germany the bigger towns will have a FEW Turks (enough to run the Doner Kapab shops...) but that's it. Even in Dresden (a million or so people) I did not see one mosque, and I'm not sure these Turks have Islam as much more than a tradition to them... It's definitely not a potential "Eurabia" at least in the east.
A major difference between eastern and western are the numbers of immigrants. The economy is so bad in eastern Germany even the Turks don't want to live there.
Guenter Glass wrote a book about thirty years ago predicting the demise of the German race about 2050. Looking around at the Germans I knew, I realized for the first time that he was right. They used to have these three-generation houses, which the working families built for themselves, their parents, and their children. But the children didn't have families.
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