FRANKFURT, Nov. 17 - It is a typical night in the maternity ward of this city's second biggest hospital and the loneliest place is the nursery. Empty baby beds are lined up against a wall like rental cars in an airport parking lot. A colorful mobile hangs hopefully over the still room.
. . . Germany's falling birthrate, like that in much of Western Europe, is entering its second generation. This means not only that mothers continue to have one or at most two children - too few to reproduce the population - but also that the number of potential mothers has dwindled. The reunification with eastern Germany, where the birthrate is even lower than in the west, has made matters worse. Dresden, the capital of depopulated Saxony, closed 43 schools this summer because of a lack of children. Elsewhere in the country, there are too many hospitals and even too many roads.
. . . Dr. Klingholz drew attention here last spring when he calculated that without new immigrants, Germany's population would wither from 82 million to 24 million by 2100. If the country maintained its current rate of 230,000 immigrants a year, it would still shrink by 700,000 over the next 15 years.
Along with the shrinking comes aging. At current birthrates, the number of schoolchildren will fall nearly 12 percent by 2050. One in every three Germans will be over 65, double the ratio today.
. . . "Rumsfeld was right: this is 'old Europe,' " Mr. Schirrmacher said. "With the loss of young people and the growth of old people, this country will become more timid and angst-ridden."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/in...pib&oref=login




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