European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1947, Darmstadt, Hesse Couples who postponed nuptials waiting for wartime conditions to improve Are swelling marriage statistics Germany postwar marriage Boom by Betty Luros a mass Rush to the after the country marriage rate dropped to an Al time Low following the downfall of the third is interpreted by sociologists and psychiatrists As a National search for Security for the second time in less than a Germany marriage rate is from an Low in when the counties military defeat and eco nomic ruin resulted in a mass aver Sion o family the figures Nave climbed so steeply that 1946 statistics almost matched the total of 1935 and this years marriages Are expected to equal the wartime Boom figure of about three quarters of a set in this general Rush to the altar has in addition to Young persons Juit reaching Marriageable thou Sands of Middle aged and elderly officials in the Frankfurt City registrars office state that the Ina Jority of marriages recorded there Are Between couples Over the age of besides the Many returned War prisoners who have married on their return to their Home commune there Are thousands of cases of couples who had postponed their nuptials during the later War years until conditions might any change they seem to must be for the and they Are taking the a number of women whose husbands were lost in the War Are finding themselves free to marry since their men have been officially declared another important Factor contrib uting to the nuptial splurge is the elimination of nazi Laws attempting to regulate marriage along racial in for 27 per cent of the marriages recorded during the first few months of this year were Between German women and non German with the erasure of the Nurnberg Laws prohibiting unions of germans with the greater percentage of Frankfurt now free to marry whom they have taken marriage German psychologists and Sociol noting that this phenomenon has come at a time of severe economic interpret it As a mass search for individual Security on a primitive in it they see an attempt to create a psychological bulwark against the discouragements of daily Kurt assistant professor of sociology at the University of Points out that the whole world is experiencing a marriage Boom and that history shows the rate of marriages always rises after a in How he it is More than history repeating it is the result of fear on the part of individuals in need of in primitive Nassauer marriage was undertaken to life easier for two who could Pool their resources and protect themselves to better advantages in couples than the parallel in contemporary he is All too evident a nation living on a primitive scale As in Early the marriage contract is again the Means of lessening the Burden of life on two evidence to support Nassauer marriage for Security theory is found on the billboards which German Date bureaus and marriage marts maintain on almost every Busy Street Corner in the metropolitan advertising the applicants More appealing the system of marriage by advertisement is an old established custom in but in contrast to the prewar ads which stressed the applicants sunny Good looks and today advertisers list their More material Middle aged widows and elderly Bache whose chances of marriage in Normal times might be Are considered the Best catches for they Are usually the ones who have managed to hang on to few More assets from better for the woman who advertises that she is fifty years dark of Good look ing for Man own has apartment will probably be wed within the so critical is the housing shortage that cases in which a divorced wife is living with her former husband and his new wife for want of another place to go Are not at All other couples have postponed divorce until such time As one or the other is Able to locate a food without seeking wife who has the courage to should have no difficulty in finding a in spite of almost any possible physical Handicap Short of this Blind Date system of marriage by endorsement has become so popular in Germany among prospective new who have no other social that Many must wait months before their turn comes up to Adver Tise in any newspaper or we can guarantee a marriage when the applicant has an apartment or food says the manager of one of Germany largest billboard advertising he the bans will be posted the Day after the in spite of the materialistic motives behind so Many German marriages Nassauer believes this tendency to seek individual secur Ity is a healthy Lack of individual consciousness in the which started in the last he leads to he continued on Page 23
