Emergence of the Welfare State Protest Generation






Social and Demographic Developments



World War II had had a significant impact on the social fabric. In Germany, for instance, just after the war among the 20-year-olds the statistical gender ratio was 4 women to one man. During the war years and immediately afterwards, the birth rate had been low as people had to face a daily struggle for survival. Then there was the REFUGEE problem, most acute in Germany which took up over 10 million of ethnic Germans expelled from their homes in eastern central Europe. In addition, many had lost contact to family members, displaced during the war as Forced Labour, evacuated from areas under bombardment, taken as P.O.W. (most P.O.W. in Soviet camps were not permitted to write letters).
Wives of P.O.W.s, after having waited in vain for any news from their missing husbands, went to the court and had declared their husband 'legally dead'. Then they remarried and had children. One day the husband, released from the P.O.W. camp, returns - a situation described by Wolfgang Borchert in his novel "DRAUSSEN VOR DER TÜR" (the man outside, 1947). The last P.O.W.s returned in 1955.

In the early 1950es, the social situation normalized, as the booming economy brought prosperity. The German industry even came to depend on the continuing influx of refugees; in France, Britain and Belgium this influx was provided by peoples from their colonies. The 1950es then saw the BABY BOOM; with the gender ratio normalizing, economic security and moderate prosperity, people longed for a happy family life.

In 1964 the ANTI-BABY-PILL came on the market, causing an immediate, sharp drop in the birth rate. CONTRACEPTION became a major issue, followed by the legalization of ABORTION. The WOMEN'S LIBERATION MOVEMENT demanded the right of women to make their own choices; a consequence was the reduction in the birth rate.
With a reduced number of children came an increase in DIVORCE RATES. The family, the traditional foundation of society, in the process of losing many of its functions (the regenerative function, as many couples decided not to have children, the social function as the WELFARE STATE was taking over many of these) seemed to become obsolete.
In the 1960es LIFESTYLE CHOICES were thematized, among them the COMMUNE - a group of (usually young people) living together family-like, by choice, without contract or with a contract they can cancel every moment. More typical choices were the lifestyle of SINGLES and (not always the result of choice) ONE PARENT FAMILIES.
Legislation discriminating against homosexuals was liberalized or abolished, censorship liberalized.

In the socialist countries of Eastern Central Europe, the situation was somewhat different. In East Germany, until 1961, when the BERLIN WALL was constructed, there were both LABOUR EMIGRATION (of mostly qualified men, to the west) and LABOUR IMMIGRATION (for instance from Yugoslavia).
As the People's Democracies by definition were atheistic, there was even less resistance to contraception and abortion, with the consequence of a declining birthrate, the lowest in technologically more advanced nations (East Germany had the lowest birth rate in Europe). Countries such as Romania and Albania, less affected by consumerism, had the highest birth rates in Europe.
More regulated media prevented an open discussion of lifestyle choices, campaigns of grass-roots movements aiming at the liberalization of certain legislation etc. Yet, also in these countries, divorce rates increased significantly.


EXTERNAL
FILES
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE



Wolfgang Borchert, The Man Outside, (1947) revised edition 1971
This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on July 8th 2001, last revised on November 11th 2004

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