Lack of Women in Eastern Germany Feeds Neo-NazisA new study has found that many more women are leaving economically moribund Eastern Germany. The result is a new, frustrated and largely male underclass. And many of them find succor in the neo-Nazi scene. The problem has been well known for years: Ever since the mid-1990s, young Eastern Germans have been fleeing the region due to a lack of economic opportunity, hoping to find jobs in the western part of the country. Some 1.5 million have already left the region — roughly 10 percent of the population of East Germany when the Berlin Wall fell. Even worse, most of those who leave are under 35 and many of them have above average education or training. But according to a new study released by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, there is another problem that accompanies the migration. Since 1991, more than two-thirds of all those who have left Eastern Germany have been women. The result is that in many towns in the region, there are simply not enough to go around — some places are missing up to 25 percent of their young women. Even worse, the young men who stay behind are often poorly educated, unemployed and frustrated — perfect fodder for neo-Nazi groups looking for members. “In general,” the study finds, “right-wing radical parties receive more votes in those areas where the most young women have left.” The reasons behind the mass migration from east to west are primarily economic. Despite some regional improvements, the economy in former East Germany continues to lag far behind that of Western Germany. Unemployment remains persistent and is well over 10 percent for those under 25 years of age. The fact that young women in the region tend to be better educated than the young men means that women have an easier time finding work in the west. Even worse, the problem is unlikely to improve any time soon, the study finds. Already, Eastern Germany is missing some 100,000 babies that otherwise would have been born in the region had more young women stayed. The brain drain and the lack of offspring further erode the economy.
Me: This reminds me of something. I remember a book review by James Q. Wilson (I think) in the mid 1990s in the Wall Street Journal (I can’t remember the book) surveying the anthropological record of human violence and one of the points he made was that young men tend to go bonkers without women around. Too many men and not enough women was a cause for wars, (pre-)historically speaking, because young men became desperate to stand out in a competitive environment and/or to acquire more womenfolk. And, no doubt, because they’re sexually frustrated and have to take it out on somebody. Wilson raised a cautionary flag about the demographic time bomb in China where women are bound to become ever more scarce under the one-child policy and nationalism becomes an outlet for all those torqued up young men. So far, the booming economy seems to be a better outlet than militaristic nationalism, but who knows what happens when/if there’s a bust in China.
Meanwhile, maybe something similar is at work in Eastern Germany?
Update: From a reader:
A similar phenomenon was observed with immigrants to the U.S.A. The first wave of any specific immigrant group tends to be the men, who disproportionately are troublemakers once they arrive and don’t calm down until women from the same group begin to arrive. It was called the Degler Thesis if memory serves.
It illustrates the common sense point that women tend to civilize men; of course, such observations today are thought crimes.
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