“THE NEW MORALITY” IN GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1922, Page 12

“THE NEW MORALITY” IN GERMANY.

CHANGES IN FAMILY LIFE. >■ DECREASE IN MARRIAGE. There is a revolution in progress in Germany which has hitherto met with little comment, because it is less visible to the naked eye than any of the other upheavals to be observed here since 1918. Nevertheless, more far-reaching results may well be expected of it than of many more noisy signs of disintegration. Nothing more or less than the advisability, sanctity, and permanency of the marriage is in question, with its whole endless chain of consequence in relation to the foundations of the State. Though it has been impossible hitherto to obtain completely accurate statistics of the birth-rate since the war, the number of marriages celebrated in the early months of the Republic was entirely satisfactory from the point of view of all eager to reconstruct and repeople an exhausted country. An increase over former years wa£ attributed to the unpleasantness of restaurant life, and the exorbitant price for sock-darn-ing demanded of the bachelor, the fact being taken for granted that the girls were always to accept upon demand. Strangely enough, it is now the reluctance of the female population upon which the decrease of marriages in 1921 is based. The German woman, more slave to tradition than in any other of the Northern countries of Europe—who has been known in her more enlightened. or rather desperate moments, to invest the imperial doctrine of church, children, cooking, and clothes with such glorified terms as ethics, psychology, kitchen chemistry, and the expression of individuality—is rapidly becoming the pioneer of what can only be tfermed the new morality. In short, the “bon ami” is rapidly taking the place of the husband, and the menage a deux that of well-regulated domestic establishment.

The desperate dissipation of Berlin has nothing to do with these new con-

ditions visible everywhere to the pryer beneath the surface and very soon to be apparent to all the world. It is the most sedate and sensible women of ail, daughters and sisters of the academic class, who are yielding to the pressure o-f circumstances.

Economic conditions are such in Germany that >only a very large income can provide for the family. The wife, willing to be a wage-earner, loses, in spite of revolutionary decrees protecting the married woman worker, as often ■fts not a remunerative position on her | marriage. Moreover greatest consideration of all in a country where the bride not only provides household linen' but furniture as well, the war-widow whose hand is eagerly sought on account of her snug little home loses her pension. There seems only one solution to the exigencies of daily life, and that is being universally adopted. It is surprising how swiftly accepted codes of morality change after a few highly-re-spected. individuals have dared to take tlie plunge, within the limits of a small

commuriity. That this community is rapidly increasing can only poifit,to the (‘fleets, insidious or otherwise, of example following upon a general upheaval of everything and anything affecting the domestic life of a nation.

The decline in the birthrate already apparent is due fai\ more to this cause than to the considerations of expense generally accepted. The fights raging Against the Socialist doctrine of open propaganda for limiting the population, by means hitherto regarded as illegal—meetings in support of such measures are now advertised largely at every street-corner in Berlin—have not yet succeeded in greatly influencing individual views. It seems that State interference is powerless in non-Catholic countries. But at this time of year, glancing through the advertisement columns of the big dailies, when with true ' German sentiment “Christmas Wishes” looms largely, the decline in seekers after matrimonv in comparison with former seasons strikes one as significant. The “gentleman of imposing presence and assured circumstances” looking for a wife this week “with dark hair, figure plump to full, a furnished flat, and ample means” quite an exception.