A baby boom is on in Cloppenburg,
unlike the rest of
Some see hope for the nation's future, but the secret may lie more in its past.
The overall population of the world, however, is growing at an astounding rate and is currently doubling every 35 years. When I was young the world population was said to be 4 billion. Now it is recognized to be around 6 billion, and is growing so fast that it is easily beating the UN projections every time. - Anthony Browne, The Guardian, UK
By Jeffrey Fleishman
CLOPPENBURG,
Some credit tradition, some God. Some say it's the return of
Germans whose families were trapped in the Soviet bloc after World War II. A
bit of all these things has made this town the nation's baby machine. But even Cloppenburg's higher-than-average fertility rate will
barely sustain its population in coming decades.
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The German government is working on legislation to encourage
more children, including increased day care and better financial packages for
women on maternity leave. In a not-very-subtle suggestion that professional
couples can handle large broods, the nation's family minister, Ursula von der Leyen, is a doctor with seven
children.
It is unlikely, however, that Cloppenburg's zeal for procreation can be copied. This
region's rhythms and religious beliefs, its sense of community and devotion to
family, run counter to an increasingly secular, egoistic
"It's still accepted here that the woman stays home
with the children, at least in the early years," said Markus Meckelnborg, a financial consultant with four children in
the neighboring town of
He sat at his dining room table and looked out across the
patio. "It's not that everyone is following all the Catholic teachings,
but the church's emphasis on the family is very strong here," he said.
"We're not anonymous to one another. In a big city, people just want
financial advice from the banker. But here they want the banker to know who
they are, to understand their biographies."
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The local government offered tax breaks and affordable land
to businesses and families. Today, unemployment is about 5%, compared with the
national rate of 10.5%.
"Our success is that we were able to get ahead
together," said Franz-Josef Holzenkamp, a member of Parliament representing the Cloppenburg
region, which has a population of 156,215. "People stick to each other.
They feel a responsibility to the place. The people here don't plan if they're
going to have a child, they just say how many."
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Holzenkamp, the son of a pig
farmer, is one of seven children. He and his wife have four of their own.
"The family belongs to Cloppenburg's
moral structure," he said. "It helps because we have a high standard
of living and people aren't scared of the future like they are in a lot of
The Rev. Michael Heyer is a slight
man with a feel for demographic trends and the New Testament. The other day he
strolled past magnolia and pine, waving to the choir gathering at a nearby
school. He turned toward St. Margaretha's. The
Catholic Church had 70 first communions last year, Heyer
said, adding, "We do have weekends without funerals, but never one without
a baptism."
He pushed open the door and slipped into the nave. Stained
glass turned the light to amber. "Ninety percent of people here own their
own house," Heyer said. "The social life is
dominated by associations and organizations from sports clubs to fire brigades.
The people want their clubs to be the best. They want their front lawns
trimmed. Children are part of it all. The extended family is strong. You always
have a grandmother next door."
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The crack of a pew, like ice breaking across a lake,
occasionally echoed through the weekday quiet of the church. Heyer pointed to a wooden crucifix with a life-size Christ
lying on the stones near the altar. "It's just a simple village church,
but I want to hoist this crucifix to the ceiling," he said. "I'm
young and my parishioners are young; much is possible."
Several miles away, past real estate brokers who advertise
homes for "families rich with children," the students at the
Many of them are Pentecostals, converted by missionaries who
ventured across
Martina Reichel-Hoffmann is the
principal at Paul Gerhardt. She has rust-colored hair and intense eyes framed
by black-rimmed glasses. She remembers when she started at the school 14 years
ago.
"Every day, new re-settler kids arrived with slips of
paper and not speaking a word of German," she said. "The re-settlers
changed the demographics. They became an enclave within an enclave."
Most of the re-settlers are laborers. They often speak rough
German and live in single houses with extended families. Their cultural and
religious backgrounds sometimes set them apart. They have brought a love of
having children to a region that has long valued family, but their arrival
indicates that the Catholic beliefs and farming rhythms that once defined Cloppenburg are being amended by different traditions.
"It's not a rosy world like the Catholic Church thinks
anymore," she said. "We have many children from single-parent and
socially weak families. Many are poor, so you just can't give them land for a
house. We need more teachers. We need a dining room at the school. It is a
parallel world. It will be thrilling to see what happens in the next 10 to 20
years."
But the babies keep coming, and that, both Protestants and
Catholics say, is good. The other day kids ran with ice cream cones over the
cobblestones and rode bikes past Kerkhoff, the
women's clothier, and Berndt, the butcher. Some circled the monument to the
peasant uprising, but that was generations ago, a time when an A-frame
tile-roofed house cost a lot less than 180,000 euros.
"I think
Empty nests
Though
EU: 10.5
--
Percentage of households with no children, 2005:
EU: 67%
* Data for 2004; 2005 not available
Source: Eurostat
Posted:
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You may think that because you live in a 'nice area,' that you and your family are safe. Nice selfish thinking, but look at the above demographics again. When the national electorate is dominated by other races, how is is their government going to rule? - Anthony Browne