Frauenmangel

Frauenmangel or lack of women is the new disease infesting Eastern parts of Germany. The Economist reports :

In some towns there are only 75 young women for every 100 young men. In one or two there are as few as 40. The effects are worrying, not only because populations may shrink but also because of the existence of a growing underclass of young men who are partnerless, underqualified and jobless.

Possible causes:

Girls are more studious than boys, so they get better qualified and migrate west to find both partners and jobs. The boys lack role models at home, where fathers are often unemployed, and at school, where teachers are mostly female.

However the stories of missing girls are different elsewhere in the world. India may have lost 10 million female births in past 20 years due to selective abortion. China is counting its missing girls in the past two decades.

This demographic disaster is termed as "gendercide" - the age-old caused by millions of families embracing abortion and infanticide to make sure their one child was a boy.

Although some parts of Germany are not suffering any loss of women (only migration) the repercussions are seen in the field of politics. The death rate among young men has risen (out of frustration) and the most fertile ground for the extreme-right NPD is now in places with a shortage of women, not high unemployment.