70 years of child benefit in the Federal Republic of Germany: 25 D-Marks for the offspring

At the beginning of the 1950s, the Federal Republic of Germany plunged into golden times. Thanks in particular to the Marshall Plan and currency reform, the economy is growing rapidly, farmers are swapping their horse teams for tractors, washing machines and televisions are being plugged into the sockets in more and more households and a roast is on the table on Sundays, cars are taking over the streets.

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With the new prosperity, a baby boom is hitting the young German democracy, and the number of births is rising significantly. Calls for financial help for parents are therefore becoming louder and politicians must think about what the promise of Article 6 of the Basic Law means in concrete terms: “Marriage and family are under special protection of the state.”

Working mothers? The family minister wants to prevent this

In 1953, the first independent “Ministry for Family Affairs” began work in the federal capital Bonn. At its head is the arch-Catholic CDU politician Franz-Josef Wuermeling, himself a father of five children, who vehemently campaigned for large families during his nine years in office in the Adenauer era – and clearly defined the place of women in them in a brochure from his ministry : “Mother’s happiness is always, right from the start, not only associated with great responsibility, but also with constant renunciation. This gift and task of self-giving and self-denial for the sake of higher goals is also what makes the mother an understanding companion in life for the husband and father and for the heart of the family”.

The minister hates working mothers; They fit into the family ideal that prevailed at the time, just as little as illegitimate children, unmarried couples and same-sex relationships.

In addition to more tax justice for families, Wuermeling’s goal is to introduce child benefit – less to alleviate social hardship, for which he sees social welfare and public welfare as responsible, but to increase the birth rate and prevent women from working.

And it’s not a new idea that he comes up with: the demand for financial support for families was already anchored in the Weimar constitution, which was then implemented for the first time by the National Socialists: From 1935 onwards, the Nazi state paid a “child allowance”. Workers and employees from the fifth and later from the third child received – provided they did not exceed a certain income and were considered “Aryan”.

When the CDU/CSU parliamentary group’s draft law for child benefit, pushed forward by Wuermeling, was put on the Bundestag agenda for a vote on October 14, 1954, a heated debate broke out. SPD MPs, for example, are demanding funding from taxpayers and are outraged by the proposed amount, which they believe is too low.

However, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, with an absolute majority, can push through its law in a vote against the votes of all other factions: From January 1, 1955, families receive 25 D-Marks per month for the third and each additional child – financed through contributions from employers and the self-employed and paid out via the newly established family compensation funds.

No child benefit for the unemployed

For an average working-class household, child benefit de facto means a wage increase of around 6.5 percent. Anyone who is unemployed, on the other hand, goes away empty-handed – which was met with such strong criticism that the federal government adjusted this regulation in 1955.

Numerous changes and additions to the first child benefit law allowed the circle of beneficiaries to continue to grow in the following decades. From 1961 onwards, families also received support for the second child, and from 1975, when the aid was already covered entirely by the federal budget, for each child. The amount always remains higher for third and fourth-born children than for the first two children – until it is equalized in 2023: Since then, the German state has been paying parents 250 euros per child per month.

But the man who introduced child benefit 70 years ago as the first West German family minister has won a place in the collective memory of the Federal Republic of Germany through another achievement: Franz-Josef Wuermeling introduced an entitlement certificate in 1957 that gave boys and girls at least enables two siblings to travel by train for half the price. The popular ID card is known as the “Würmeling” or “Karnickel Pass” and has been in the luggage of large families for decades.

However, Wuermeling failed to achieve his actual goals in the long term: despite child benefit, the birth rate in the Federal Republic of Germany fell rapidly from the mid-1960s. And more and more mothers are sending their offspring to kindergarten – to go to work.