Germany - People - Dem Deutschen Volke
"Germany has the world's largest current account surplus and its second oldest population, as well as one of the lowest unemployment rates in the European Union. Most inhabitants of Germany are ethnic German. There are, however, more than 7 million foreign residents, most of whom are the families and descendents of so-called gastarbeiter - "guest workers" (foreign workers, mostly from Turkey, invited to Germany in the 1950's and 1960's to fill labor shortages) who remained in Germany, and Germany has a sizable ethnic Turkish population.
With the baby boom generation preparing to retire, the scarcity of labor in Germany is likely to become chronic, with half a million immigrants needed annually for 35 years, a 2015 study claimed, predicting a sharp drop in Germany's workforce. Within the next 15 years, half of all German workers will become pensioners, the Bertelsmann Institute warned in a study published 27 March 2015. Without immigrants, Germany’s labor pool is likely to shrink from current its 45 million to 29 million people (or 36 percent) by 2050.
Even if the number of employed women would somehow equal to that of men and the retirement age is prolonged to 70 years, this would only give additional 4.4 million workers. Further digitalization and robotization of production processes could decrease this shortage, however. Germany’s Destatis (Federal Statistics Office) estimates that in 2013 as many as 429,000 immigrants came to the country. In 2014 up to 470,000 people arrived.
Average population density is about 230 people per square kilometer, but population distribution is very uneven. In the former West Germany, population density is 267 people per square kilometer, compared with 140 people per square kilometer in the former East Germany. Berlin and the industrialized Ruhr Valley are densely populated, while much of the Brandenburg and Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania regions in the East are thinly populated. These disparities have been exacerbated by migration from East to West, as former Easterners have sought better employment opportunities. About 61 percent of the population lives in towns with 2,000 to 100,000 inhabitants; 30 percent, in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants; and the remainder, in villages with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants.
Germany’s population of 7.3 million foreigners includes 2 million Turks and many refugees from the developing world. Many Turks came to Germany as guest workers [gastarbeiter] during the economic boom from the mid-1950s to the end of 1973. Since 1970, about 3.2 million foreigners have become German citizens. With the introduction of a new citizenship law in 2000, many children of foreign parents became eligible for German citizenship for the first time. Between 1988 and 1993, more than 1.4 million refugees, many from the former Soviet Union, sought asylum in Germany, but only 57,000 were granted their wish.
In West Germany, the Basic Law of 1949 (article 3.2) indicated that “Men and women shall have equal rights,” but it was not until 1957 that the civil code was amended to conform to this statement. After World War II, despite the severe shortage of young men that made marriage impossible for many women, traditional marriage once again became society’s ideal. Employment and social welfare programs remained predicated on the male breadwinner model. Even in the early 1950s, women could be dismissed from the civil service when they married. Women resumed the traditional role as homemakers and mothers and largely withdrew from employment outside the home. West Germany relied on “Guest Workers” and refugees from the GDR to fill the ranks of needed employees.
In East Germany, however, women remained in the workforce. The Soviet-style system mandated women’s participation in the economy, and the GDR implemented this key objective by opening up educational and vocational opportunities to women. To permit women to be both mothers and workers, the government provided an extensive system of social supports, such as a highly developed day-care network for children.
The reunification of Germany in 1990 has resulted in the greater desirability for women to enter the labor force, but one of the major impediments has been the paucity of childcare facilities and kindergartens for young children. In addition, the length of the primary school day needs to be adjusted to meet the increase in working parents, or additional afterschool programs also need to grow. Since 2007 there has been a government-sponsored parental support program, and mostly women have used the program, although it applies to both parents.
Parent leave polices have an important impact on gender equality both in the workplace and with respect to child care policies. In a study of 21 countries on the effects of parental leave policies, Germany ranked 3rd after France and Spain for two parent families. According to this study, Germany came in 2nd with married women taking paid leaves, whereas it ranked 12th with fathers taking paid parental leaves.
The age of Germany's population augurs a demographic crisis against the backdrop of rising immigration," according to the Daily Economic Briefing. As the country's population ages, German women are not having enough children to keep the population growing or even steady. In 2017, the birth rate was 8.6 births per 1,000 residents, much lower than the death rate of 11.7 deaths per 1,000 residents. In 2016, 18.6 million residents in Germany had an immigrant background — a record high for the country — mostly attributable to the influx of refugees. While some immigrants come from the Middle East and Africa, most of the immigrant population has come from fellow European nations.
Germany - Women
German laws enshrine women's rights, as in many countries, but in most societies, equal rights for women are not still fully realised. In Germany, this is particularly evident in inequality of opportunities in the field of business and politics. Sexualised and domestic violence, and international trafficking of women, are among other critical issues.
Germany has a strong focus on gender equality and women's rights. The country has made significant progress in terms of women's empowerment and has implemented laws and policies to protect women's rights, combat gender-based discrimination, and promote gender equality in various aspects of life. In Germany, women have already become more visible in the society compared to other countries, yet the women's movement is far from reaching its goal.
German women have made notable contributions to various fields, including arts, literature, music, science, and sports. Throughout history, German women have excelled in areas such as literature (e.g., Bettina von Arnim, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff), philosophy (e.g., Hannah Arendt), and science (e.g., Emmy Noether).
In November 1918, women in Germany obtained the right to vote. It was one of the most important achievements of the women's movement of that time and a starting signal for a long road to emancipation, yet it was marked by many setbacks. Only a short time later, under the Nazi regime in Germany, women lost almost all of their rights and were reduced to their role as mothers. Females were seen as “the incubators of new German soldiers,” as housekeepers and child rearers.
Germany, unlike other nations involved in WWII, such as the UK and the USA, was relatively late in mobilizing women for factory work. This was largely due to Nazi ideology, which emphasized traditional gender roles. During World War II, German women were a significant part of the war industry.
A Hausfrau was a housewife was a married woman who did not have a paid job, but instead looked after her home and children. She was a traditional housewife and mother. one regarded as very domestic. Kinder, Küche, Kirche means Children, Kitchen, Church. The term was introduced by Kaiser Wilhelm II to refer to German women's roles in German society.
Hitler's call for women to return to hearth and home found a responsive audience. The Kinder, Küche, Kirche issue in Nazi propaganda implied that women were deserting their homes, their children, and their morality, challenging men's authority by asserting their independence and by flooding the labor market to such an extent that honest Familienväter found themselves without “work or bread,” Carl Gustav Jung, in his pamphlet Die Frau in Europa, was only one of the more distinguished spokesmen for the widely held view that women's emancipation was responsible for endangering not only the institution of marriage but also the whole spiritual balance between the masculine and feminine principles.
Before the war, Nazi ideology emphasized that a woman's role was at home, supporting the family and raising children. Women were encouraged to leave their jobs, especially professional ones, and this was formalized in a variety of ways, such as offering the "Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter" (Cross of Honour of the German Mother) to women who bore four or more children.
However, as the war continued and the male workforce was increasingly conscripted into the military, the need for labor in factories and other industries became acute. By 1943, Hitler rescinded his previous policy and called on women to contribute to the war effort in the factories and fields.
This lead to millions of women being drawn into the workforce, especially in the armaments industry. German women worked in munitions factories, aircraft factories, and various other industries critical to the war effort. They assembled V-2 rockets, worked in metal and chemical industries, and operated machinery. In addition to this, they also worked in fields like nursing, administration, and auxiliary roles in the military.
By the end of the war, around 14 million women were working in armament production, a significant increase from the pre-war period. But even this large number wasn't enough to replace the lost labor due to military conscription, and Germany also used forced labor from occupied countries.
After World War II, women in Germany were needed as laborers, but for decades they were still required by law to prioritize managing the marital household over paid work. Post-war, the experience of women workers during the war had lasting impacts on women's roles in German society. The necessity of women's labor during the war had shown that women could perform jobs traditionally reserved for men, which contributed to changing attitudes about gender roles.
However, the immediate post-war period saw a return to more traditional roles for women, as society tried to return to normalcy and as returning soldiers re-entered the workforce. It wasn't until the 1960s and 1970s that the role of women in German society began to change significantly, partly due to the economic boom (Wirtschaftswunder) and the influence of the feminist movement.
It was only in 1977 that legislation changed, giving married women in West Germany more rights. Until then, they were not allowed to work outside of the home without their husband's permission. The German Basic Law (Grundgesetz), the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany adopted in 1949, officially granted equal rights to women and men, but it has been a long fight for women to obtain actual recognition, and the struggle for gender equality is pursued to this day.
According to the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) women and men are considered to be equal in Germany. But even though a large percentage of women have the same or higher education and qualifications, they are still very few women on the executive floors in Germany.
German women are active in the workforce, with a relatively high labor force participation rate. However, like in many countries, women in Germany continue to face challenges such as the gender pay gap and underrepresentation in top leadership positions. Efforts to promote gender equality and improve work-life balance, such as parental leave policies and flexible work arrangements, have been implemented to address these issues.
German women have access to high-quality education and are well-represented in universities and professional fields. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of women pursuing higher education degrees and entering traditionally male-dominated fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
To increase women's presence in leading positions, the law for the equal participation of women and men in executive positions (FüPoG) has been in place since May 2015. The law was expanded in August 2021 (FüPoG II). This law requires larger private and public companies to increase the proportion of women in their supervisory committees, boards of directors and senior management positions. This so-called "women's quota" was received in different ways and is still hotly debated. Since this law has been introduced, the proportion of women in these areas has risen slightly.
The situation is the same in the political sphere: here, too, women are under-represented. Although Germany had a female Chancellor (Angela Merkel) for 16 years, the share of women in the political sphere in general and especially at the local level is still lower than that of men. German parties have different approaches toward the topic of women's quota. Some parties have fixed quotas; others do not. Overall, however, the political sphere endeavours to promote women and their participation in social and economic life.
On average, women earn less than men in Germany. That is partly because women work in the fields with lower payments, such as social services. Besides, women often make less money for doing the same job their male counterparts do. For years, politicians have been discussing various proposals to promote pay equality, but so far not much has changed. One day in the year has been titled "Equal Pay Day" in Germany to raise awareness of the issue.
Also, the responsibility of the household, raising children and caring for the sick or old family members are still mainly on women's shoulders - these are unpaid tasks which often are not even perceived as work. The same goes for social and cultural volunteer work, which is also carried out mainly by women. Although more and more women work, in many families in Germany, the man is still seen as the main breadwinner, who does not have to contribute to house chores.
Domestic violence refers to the cases in which a family member, acquaintance or other person abuses you in a physical, sexual or emotional manner. Domestic violence usually takes place within homes, but can happen in any other place as well. Many people think of domestic violence as physical violence, i.e. sexual abuse or beatings. But domestic violence has various forms: being insulted, cursed at, threatened, or controlled is also domestic violence. And so is stalking, i.e. being followed and monitored by someone. Any type of violence is punishable in Germany, i.e. the police are obliged to react when notified about domestic violence.
The law criminalizes rape of a person, including spousal rape, regardless of gender, and provides penalties for conviction of up to 15 years in prison. Without a court order, officials may temporarily deny access to their household to those accused of abuse, or they may impose a restraining order. In severe cases of rape and domestic violence, authorities may prosecute individuals for assault or rape and require them to pay damages. Penalties depend on the nature of the case. The government enforced the laws effectively.
The federal government, the states, and NGOs supported numerous projects to prevent and respond to cases of gender-based violence, including providing survivors with greater access to medical care and legal assistance. Approximately 350 women’s shelters operated throughout the country.
Social service NGOs and shelter operators complained access to shelters was uneven or not available in many areas, with a shortfall in accommodation for approximately 15,000 women nationwide. Media reported a lack of shelter availability in many regions of the country. The NGO Central Information Agency of Autonomous Women’s Shelters stated refugee women were at particular risk of domestic violence because they were required to maintain residence in a single district for three years, had few financial resources, and often resided in districts without women’s shelters.
Criminal law considers so-called honor killings as murder and the government enforced the law effectively. Although authorities estimated the number of such killings fluctuated between approximately three and 12 during any given year, some observers questioned how many of these were so-called honor killings, which media tended to attribute to immigrant communities, and how many were other manifestations of domestic violence.
The law prohibits sexual harassment. Penalties for conviction include monetary fines and prison sentences of up to five years. Various disciplinary measures against harassment in the workplace are available, including dismissal of the perpetrator. The law requires employers to protect all employees from sexual harassment. The law considers an employer’s failure to take measures to protect employees from sexual harassment to be a breach of contract, and an affected employee has the right to paid leave until the employer rectifies the problem.
While abortion is technically illegal in Germany, existing laws protect patients, physicians, and service providers from prosecution through the twelfth week under certain conditions. The law requires parental permission for patients younger than age 18 to obtain an abortion, but physicians may exempt patients age 14 or older from this requirement.
On 07 July 2022, the government eliminated a Nazi-era law that had generally restricted doctors and service providers from providing information about abortion and related services available.
Germany - Men
A June 2023 survey revealing that many young people in Germany find domestic violence is "acceptable" and believe women belong in the kitchen and public displays of homosexuality are to be rejected has come as a shock. One-in-three men surveyed by the nongovernmental organization Plan International said they were okay with occasional violence toward women; 34% said they get rough with women at times "to make them show respect." In March, 1,000 men and 1,000 women aged 18-35 took part in a standardized written online survey for Plan International's latest survey on tensions surrounding the idea of male identity.
Other statements also present an unsettling image of masculinity. According to the survey, 48% of the respondents feel bothered when men are openly gay. The role models they name include US entrepreneur Elon Musk and Andrew Tate — an influencer who presented himself as a self-proclaimed misogynist on TikTok and made a name for himself with statements like "females are the ultimate status symbol" and "masculine life is war."
The survey initially caused a great stir in the media, followed by fierce criticism. Users on social networks questioned whether the study was really representative, especially since the survey was conducted virtually and so clearly targeted an online-savvy group. Others criticized the fact that concrete questions were missing. However, the main focus was whether or not young men in Germany really think and act that way.
Experts agreed the organization's survey has pitfalls. "I would have liked to have seen more detail on how the study was designed," says Dag Schölper from the Bundesforum Männer, an advocacy group for boys and men. He told DW that unfortunately it is not exactly clear how the answers were given either.
"All the same, even if one-third of 1,000 random men give an affirmative answer — they may not be entirely serious when saying whether they could imagine beating their partner — they still said yes rather than automatically saying, that is totally inacceptable," says Schölper. He adds that statistics on violence show that such an attitude exists and is acted upon in parts of society. The numbers prove him right. About 143,000 people experienced violence at the hands of their partner or ex-partner in 2021, according to an analysis of criminal statistics by Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).
In about 80% of cases, the victims were women and the vast majority of perpetrators were male. Compared to the previous year, it marks a slight decrease but a look at the past five years shows an increase.
The figures concerning the perception of masculinity and possible prejudices are somewhat lower, but still disconcerting. A 2017 survey by the German government's anti-discrimination agency, for instance, says about 40% of respondents said they were bothered by publicly displayed homosexuality.
About 90% of respondents in a United Nations survey for the 2023 Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) said they harbored prejudices against women. Two-thirds of respondents did not trust women with political leadership roles. One-in-four said it is okay for a man to hit a woman. Despite numerous campaigns, the GSNI shows "no improvement in prejudice against women in a decade," the organization said earlier this week.
But why is so-called toxic masculinity still so predominant? "There are always pendulum swings, and they are also reflected in the survey," says Schölper. "Homosexuality and queer life are increasingly visible in public, they don't just take place in secret. People who find that problematic feel challenged, perhaps threatened."
Crises like the coronavirus pandemic also revive traditional gender roles, when people return to the traditional to create a sense of security. During the pandemic, women once again took over more care work, and domestic violence increased according to sociologists. And according to Schölper, there is a worldwide backlash movement that has bolstered rigid, narrow ideas of gender.
The figures are clear mandate, says the expert. "We need to work with boys and men," he says, arguing that municipalities must understand that a counseling structure for men is a public service to make sure that when they have problems, they don't turn to the internet "and people like Andrew Tate to seek advice."
Germany - LGBTQI
The law prohibits discrimination by state and nonstate actors based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics and recognized LGBTQ+ individuals, couples, and their families. Authorities enforced the law. The government offered telephone and online consultations to persons who wished to report discrimination.
By law, offering, advertising, or arranging treatments to convert homosexual or transgender children by means of “conversion therapy” is a crime punishable if convicted by up to a year in prison. Persons convicted of coercing such “therapy” on persons of legal age are also subject to incarceration. There were no reports that children had been subjected to conversion therapy during the year.
Germany has a problem with diversity, according to Germany's Lesbian and Gay Association (LSVD). That could change as soon as the government coalition of center-left Social Democrats, environmentalist Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats pushes its gender identity law through parliament, The German Society for Trans Identity and Intersexuality (dgti) is working on the path to a "better world for all trans, inter and non-binary people." In 2018, Germany became one of the few countries worldwide that officially recognizes the existence of more than two genders when it introduced a third option, "diverse," in addition to "male" and "female."
decades of research in Germany have shown a staggering increase in tolerance for non-hetero sexual orientations. A wide-ranging comparison compiled by the Bundestag in 2016, including research going back to the 1940s, illustrates a country that has become more open each decade. For example, in 1949, 53 percent of married men in Germany said that they saw homosexuality as an illness. By 1976, that number had dropped to 25 percent. Another survey found that in western Germany in 1991, 36 percent of respondents said they would not want homosexuals as neighbors. 17 years later, the number was just 13 percent. The results for eastern Germany were about the same.
Two anti-queer attacks are reported each day, although Germany's federal Interior Ministry admits that the true number is likely much higher. Organizations like the Lesbian and Gay Association (LSVD), as well as the police, estimate that up to 90% of cases go unreported. Many assaults coincide with parades held for Christopher Street Day , the name for LGBTQ Pride events in several German-speaking countries. Hatred of homosexuals is widespread among Chechens, but also among men from Afghanistan or Syria. With the migration from these countries, homophobia in Germany is growing. But by a large margin, crimes in both the "gender/sexual identity" category and the "sexual orientation" category were committed by offenders with a right-wing motivation.
Homosexuality was illegal long before the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, as was set down in paragraph 175 of the Reich Penal Code of 1871, the year the first German Reich was founded. "Unnatural fornication" between men fell under this paragraph, defined as "crimes against morality." The Nazis massively tightened the penal provisions and introduced Paragraph 175a in 1935 prohibiting all "lewd acts" between men.
In 1936, the year of the Berlin Olympics, the Nazis founded the "Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion." Gay people in particular were targeted for persecution after the office gathered data on citizens. Around 100,000 investigative proceedings were initiated during the Nazi era, and about 50,000 men were convicted.
Gay men, forced to wear a pink triangle badge on their prisoner clothing, were often put into punishment "commandos" with tougher working conditions. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 gay men were deported to German concentration camps by the end of the Nazi era in 1945. In Sachsenhausen alone, there were about 1,000, more than in any other concentration camp. Along with Jews, Sinti and Roma, they were those most abused by the guards. Although the fate of gay men during the Nazi era had been documented many times, it took decades for marks of public remembrance to appear.
Lesbian women were also denounced for their "deviant" sexuality and came under police scrutiny, but in terms of criminal law, they were mostly spared. The fate of lesbian concentration camp inmates is much less researched than that of gay men, as there was no separate inmate category for them. Lesbian women were sent to concentration camps under various labels: As "anti-socials," homeless, prostitutes, or women categorized as having an "immoral lifestyle."
In the GDR, in line with anti-fascist state doctrine, it was the political prisoners who were in focus," he said. And in the Federal Republic, it was the military officers who plotted against Hitler and later the Jewish people who were commemorated. For decades, many other victim groups — those persecuted as "anti-socials," Sinti and Roma and gay people – were excluded from commemorations and denied financial compensation. The continuities of stigmatization and exclusion mechanisms extended far beyond 1945.
Practiced homosexuality was considered a criminal offense in both German states after 1945, although liberalization began much earlier in East Germany than in West Germany.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
