Large families are saving Germany but the media don't want to know

Breaking the “two” barrier in Germany

BY CAROLYN MOYNIHAN

One of the last places in the world you would expect to have many large families is Germany. German women have, on average, only 1.4 children each, and one in five women will remain childless. Chancellor Angela Merkel is one of those. By contrast, one of her chief ministers, Ursula von der Leyen, has seven children.

Probably there are not many families of that size in the country, but there are a substantial number with three or more -- about 1.4 million, making up 12 percent of all families with children, according to this infographic on the website of the German Association of Large Families (KRFD). And remember, three kids qualifies as a “large family” these days.

With the country’s population declining in recent years – in spite of immigration, which the native Germans are getting somewhat restless about anyway – you would think the nation would be grateful to those couples slowing down that process by having three or more kids. But is it?

No. Not judging by the amount of space they get in the news media, and the kind of treatment they get when they are mentioned. Stereotypes and clichés are the order of the day, according to a recent study carried out by a group of researchers from Cologne. After an exhaustive analysis of 1100 articles mentioning families published by German newspapers in 2011 and 2012, they entitled their report, “The Last of the Politicians’ Interests”.

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