When Julia Brandner recently estimated her book “I Am Not Kidding”, the 30 -year -old impressive and comedian was faced with a barrage of insults. Brandner told DW that a 72 -year -old mother of three children took him to the floor and attacked her in front of the audience.
However, the book, in which the Austrian-birth and Berlin-based Brandner explained with great humor and clarity, why she never wanted to become pregnant and wanted to undergo sterilization for that reason, that is, attracted many positive reactions.
Speaking of hate that he has experience with many quarters, he said: “You seal as a revolutionary. If you say that you do not want children, you are very quickly convicted for the pension system and inter -state contract, and really bring real about the extinction of mankind.”
This criticism is affected by a number, which many young women celebrate as a sign of progress in women self -determination, but that the others see the other as a febsul part of the decreasing prosperity and frequent shrinking population: 1.35.
According to the federal statistical office, in 2024 there were an average number of children by women in Germany. The average birth rate for women with German nationality was just 1.23, a figure that increased to 1.89 for non-German National. Overall, 677,117 children were born in 2024 in Germany, which was a decrease of 15.872 before a year.
Distance AFD calls to promote birth rate
Brandner was 28 years old when he was sterilized. Her gynecologist demanded to assess psychiatry of her mental ability before executing the operation.
Brandner was surprised by the controversy caused by his book. She said that she is looking at a growing shift in the thesis time, as well as with a return of more “traditional” values, where stand on the stove and supports to take care of the children.
The distant option for the German party (AFD) has done a lot on the subject of sinking fertility and is calling for more children rather than immigration as a way to deal with skilled workers.
Brandner feels that even in 2025, the subject of children is still very widely in the form of lakes because there are some concerns. He said, “Many single mothers are being left to face on their own, while the father is often excluded from the hook. For women, children have a risk of poverty. It may not be that even today a woman has received prosperity of society’s prosperity,” he said.
Fertility rates sink worldwide
But Germany is not the only country that has been experiencing a sinking fertility rate so far. The number worldwide is decreasing significantly, which is less than 0.75 in South Korea. Vietnam rang the alarm bell earlier this year, when its birthday rate decreased. The only exception is Sahel Zone, where more than five children are silent on an average.
Michela Cranefeld is a sociologist and was one of the experts behind the family report of the German government. She sees the growing relationship between economic crises and uncertainties and birth rates. “Is it ego or just autonomous behavior that women do not want to make children? We have a bee talking about it at least since the 1970s, so it’s nothing new,” she told DW.
What is new, he said, there are many crises: “Kovid epidemic, massive climate change and high inflation. Especially for the younger generation, this is a new position,” said Cranfeld.
A protest in the US is trying to deer this trend, as its most prominent representative with the world’s richest man: pronunciation and Elon Musk wants to bring more and more children in the world.
However, Cranfeld indicated Romania as an example from Eastern European history that can serve as a warning. “President CeausESCU used measures, discovered as limiting access to contraceptives and applying Dracian penalty for men, to push birth from 1.8 to four within a year. The result was ‘lost generation’ among Romania’s children because they did not want them.”
How can Germany find ‘breeding interval’?
So, what can be done to increase birth rate without state pressure? Martin Bujard, Deputy Director of the Federal Institute for Population Research, is a reply.
In Germany, at the birth rate in Germany, an expert Bujard, who has been in the last two decades of the last two decades of figures, said that debate about women like Branders, who have deliberately chosen to remain a childless, remembering the real point.
“If nothing wants to do any children, this is their decision. This shigield is not tarnished, and, in fact, it is acceptable to live a childless life,” Hey.
What is real on the issue here. “We have asked how many children want people, and it showed that in 2024, both women and men wanted an average of 1.8 children – in other words, well at the birth rate of 1.35. If this current desire for children was fulfilled in a long time.”
The term “fertility gap” is used for the difference between the desired number of children and the birth rate, searching as whey. Many women probably have just one child instead of two wilds. This can happen because they do not find a stable partnership uniler later in life, because children do not do lube lens as a property as a problem in social debates, not an asset and/or because the state can do it to make it easier for a family.
Germany needs to improve work-life balance
The Bujard praises family-friendly policies applied by the German state in the past, discovery as the number of child care centers and all-day schools and introduces parents’ allowances in the early 2000s.
Hey, this was the change of bees that were widely seen on international, Germany had the lowest birthday in the world. However, he takes an important approach about the current situation.
“Since 2013, we have a legal right to care for the child, but this is not a lover, because searching is the lack of OBE child care workers, and the system receives a lot in the end. If Anohm is there, if there was money, then talks about a cold high. Chadt high.”
Germany needs to make a big effort again with the policies of the IT family, as the current trend is worrisome: 22% of women and 36% of men and no 50 years of age, for federal matters, according to senior citizens, women and youth. Federal statistical office data shows that men in Germany had only 1.24 children on average in 2024.
Above all, young women academics are fast childless. For this reason, Bujard said, the only way is to implement work and family compatibility.
“The worst situation is that there will be a more serious problem with social insurance over the long term with the continuous sinking rate in 2030. This will cause serious damage to prosperity: contributing to social insurance cuts in the health system and care sector,” Herr said.
This article was original in German.
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