Goal Panic

Germans are dying out. And not only the Germans: Italians, Swiss, and Hungarians – all of Europe suffers from demographic decline. It is easy to find someone to blame for the widespread childlessness: Feminists who discouraged women from taking their naturally given place in the home and kitchen, for example. Or self-centered career women, who would rather earn money than care for their offspring. Or it may be, if you look at it from a different angle, the prohibitively expensive childcare, or economic uncertainty, and inflexible work hours. But if one looks beyond the buzzwords, the social reality between wanting kids and having them becomes a lot more complex. Mirjam Neidhart interviewed people who never wanted to have children, who have always dreamt of having children, have lost children; working parents and those who raise children as singles, couples or as a threesome. These “intimate insights into a reproductive crisis” compile scenes of grotesque logic, moments of great sadness, and displays of desperate attempts into a multi-faceted survey of a “gestational generation”.