Baby boomers

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US birth rate (per 1000 people), the blue area from 1946 to 1964 is the post-war baby boom

As a Baby Boomer or Baby Boomers refers to both individuals and the whole of the cohort or social generation , which increases at times fertility rates (the "baby boom ") after World War II and other wars were born in the war-affected countries . To make things clearer , the term boom generation is sometimes used as a whole .

The baby boom occurred in both the winning and losing countries of World War II, but at different times. In the USA and France the baby boom lasted from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s; in Switzerland, those born between 1946 and 1964 are considered to be baby boomers; In West Germany, the baby boom did not begin until the mid-1950s due to the consequences of the war, it replaced the generation of so-called war children and lasted there until the end of the 1960s. This means: the cohorts immediately after the war (1946–1950) had high birth rates in the USA, France and Switzerland, but still low birth rates in Germany. After the Korean War ended in 1953, the baby boom in South Korea lasted from 1955 to 1963.

The baby boom was the only phase since the late 19th century in which the fertility rate rose again; their subsequent sinking is called the pill kink .

Germany

Demography of Germany : Births and Deaths in Germany

In Germany, those born between 1955 and 1969 are referred to by statisticians as baby boomers. In the United States, this age cohort corresponds more closely to the so-called Generation Jones, both in terms of age and in terms of typical habitus . The birth rate peaked in 1964 with 1,357,304 live births. The so-called pill kink began in 1965 : the birth rate fell and finally sank in 1970 below the level of 1955; from 1972 the birth rate was below the death rate. In the long term, the downward trend in the number of births continues to this day; In 2002 the number of births was only half as high as in 1964. Although the high-birth generation represents a numerically powerful demographic factor , there are no studies with clear results about their attitude towards life and their socialization type . In contrast, statements based on assumptions, speculations and interpretations can increasingly be found in the media and in business.

Psychology and sociology

From a social-psychological perspective, it is assumed that because of the large number of people of the same age in relation to other age groups, a primordial experience of the masses took place, which was not without consequences for personality development. Terms such as pack , cohort , mini- youth bulge , population glut and baby boomers are associated with the numerical phenomenon of this generation. Some social-psychological theories claim that as a result of these experiences, competitive behavior has migrated into the people. This is very similar to self-marketing as practiced in advertising. With increasingly sensational stimuli an attempt is made to compete for ever decreasing attention . Another effect is the relativization of individuality in the crowd. The ethically substantiated individuality promised by society becomes a mass phenomenon when everyone strives for individuality and the individual recognizes that there are many who can do the same and that the individual is thus replaceable. The contrast between individuality and mass melts away.

As the next generation of the 1968 movement , the baby boomers in Germany are disillusioned. Her motto in life would be: “Live and let live.” This is an attitude that the social psychologist Rolf Haubl from the Sigmund Freud Institute in Frankfurt explains: “You do not have this verve and the illusion of believing that you are relatively small Group would be able to change societies as effectively as possible immediately ... The moral of today is called indifference , because indifference is an attitude with which one can best protect oneself from disappointment. Anyone have any goals , has not disappointed, whoever does not carry out to change society, can not be disappointed if they can not be changed. "In an article in time from the year 2004, the generation is similarly characterized. The newspaper poses the prognostic question of whether the baby boomers will be able to hold together identities that legitimize parties, churches, readership and business enterprises that go beyond pure profit interests, despite their mediocre common sense , lack of charisma and excessive energy. On the other hand, the baby boomers made up the bulk of the peace movement and the environmental movement in the 1980s as schoolchildren and students , so they showed a strong political and social commitment during this time.

Some sociologists see the baby boomers as a rather happy generation: in 1973/74 there was the oil price shock ; car-free Sundays gave a slightly depressive premonition of “that it won't always go on like this”. In 1979 the Holocaust was first dealt with on television in a mass-effective manner, for example in Holocaust - The History of the Weiss Family . There was a no-future and punk movement. But according to those sociologists, this generation has not yet had to accept true defeats. On the other hand there is the social-psychological complex, which is discussed under the term war grandchildren.

economy and politics

The number of baby boomers has made them an important factor in political efforts to cope with demographic change . This generation is partially affected by the consequences of the economic and social challenges. The increase in the retirement age in the statutory pension scheme to 67 years of age in spring 2007 - which, however, mainly extends to the low-birth cohorts from 1965 onwards and puts a strain on them in favor of the baby boomers - is seen by the political opposition as a step in this direction.

Those born between 1945 and 1969 make up 58% of the members of the 19th German Bundestag in Germany.

Processing in net culture

Baby boomers are also referred to as boomers in web culture . Boomers are often accused of outdated or conservative views and little teachability and openness to new things, which lead to a generation conflict. Since the term is mainly used for clichés, the definition is not limited to the period of birth, which means that younger generations can also have boomer views, while baby boomers do not automatically represent “boomer views”. In 2019 the phrase “ OK Boomer ” developed into an internet meme , which sees itself as a counter-movement to the clichés about Generation Y and Generation Z and instead takes up stereotypes about the older generation. Although the term is mostly used humorously, it can also refer to age discrimination .

Since the COVID-19 pandemic , the cynical names “boomer doomer” or “boomer remover” have been circulating as memes on social networks for the COVID-19 pathogen . The name, which can be roughly translated as “remover of baby boomers”, refers to the fact that older people in particular belong to the risk groups of COVID-19. Due to the particularly high mortality in this age group, the age pyramid could be changed significantly, i.e. the pandemic could counteract the increasing aging of western societies, and thus also the collapse of the pension system, which has been increasingly discussed in recent years due to an unbalanced ratio of payers and pensioners. Voices are being raised that corona parties or small spatial distances among young people are not only due to the negligence of a lack of social empathy , but also to accepting deaths out of self-interest or even wanton social Darwinism . In the United States, there is also debate as to whether this behavior should be seen as a revenge against the generations who have accepted the sacrifice of young people in war operations to the benefit of the older establishment.

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Babyboomer  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Peter Bucher: Baby boomers are reaching retirement age . In: Statistical Office of the Canton of Zurich (Ed.): Statistik.info . June 2008, p. 4 ( zh.ch [PDF]): “According to the most common definition, baby boomers are those who were born between the end of the Second World War and the pill break in the mid-1960s. In Switzerland these are roughly those born between 1946 and 1964. ... "
  2. ^ Arirang TV, May 6, 2013
  3. ↑ Current projections assume that cohort fertility is currently rising again and that women born between 1970 and 1979 will have more children, but the fertility rate for the 1970s cannot be definitively determined until 2020. Compare your little children
  4. ↑ Federal Statistical Office : Population - Born and Died Germany , accessed on July 22, 2013
  5. ↑ B. Schwentker (2014): Pill kink? Can you bend! Spiegel Online, March 19, 2014 (archive) ( Memento from January 9, 2019 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Bernhard von Becker: Baby Boomers: The Generation of Many. (edition suhrkamp pocket book). Suhrkamp-Verlag, 2014, ISBN 3-518-46508-2 .
  7. ↑ Doris Weber, 2006: Generation Optimism, in Publik-Forum No. 6 v. March 23, 2007, 60ff
  8. ↑ Age structure. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Morbid 'boomer remover' coronavirus meme only makes millennials seem more awful. In: New York Post online, March 19, 2020.
  10. ↑ Kary Love: Boomer Remover. In: counterpunch.org, March 23, 2020.