'There's Not a Single Book There, No PC, No Internet': Increasing Poverty in Germany and a Lack of Political Answers

摘要

It was a long way to go before the German parliamentary parties acknowledged that a national reporting on poverty and wealth is long overdue. Compared with other European countries the reporting of poverty in the Federal Republic of Germany is backward. The Red-Green coalition under Gerhard Schroder (1998-2005) was the first to present a regular Poverty and Wealth Report to the German Bundestag in 2001 followed up by the second in 2005. Both should serve as a basis for a process for combating social exclusion. Although intensive research has been done on poverty in general, especially on poverty in families and deprivation contexts for children, the national Poverty and Wealth Reports still raise numerous problems. Recently representatives of the Grand coalition announced that the Federal Government will come out with a third Poverty and Wealth Report within the next months and it is expected to prove a still increasing social split, more and more catching up with the lower middle class. And it is doubtful whether this third report will meet the Governmental requirements formulating political answers how to combat poverty in Germany.