STATE-PLANNED MARRIAGES.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17430, 15 April 1922, Page 2

STATE-PLANNED MARRIAGES.

A GERMAN CAMPAIGN. (From the Berlin Correspondent of the "Daily Chronicle.") "A marriage has been officially arranged. .» • i That in the opinion of many social reformers..is what it must come to before the very serious "marriage crisis in Germany can be effectively dealt Wl Tha German still has afirm belief in official supervision and action: if anything can only be carried out with official help, it is certain that all will be well. So a campaign is beginning with a" view So getting ~ the State or the municipality, or both, to take up the thorny task of seeing that the right people marry the right people. A serious crisis does exist in the marriage market in the Fatherland, as a result of the war and its aftermath.. It is pointed out by campaigners that the old happy- go-lucky ways of engagement and marriage ate, for vast numbers of people:, quite out of the question in these filtered and sadly muddled times, and that, unless something ia. dope in the way of reform and official action, a state of affairs disastrous to the country will quickly come about. Divorci) Cases Increasing. The number of divorces in Germany h'as increased alarmingly:— 1916 ... ... 10,494 1917 11,605 ' 1918 ... ... 13,334 1919 ... •» 22,022 These figures, it is insisted, should be an incentive to immediate action. Then there has been such an upheaval in social conditions that marriage has become the remotest of prospects for a va6t proportion of the population. Largß numbers of men in the old urjper classes cannot now afford to marry"; the Bfime can be said of an infinitely greater proportion of the old .middle classes. The young women of these classes, therefore, find that there is no chance of marriage for them. A new upper and a new middle class has arisen (the more or less successful get-rich-quickcrs), both wealthier than ■the old, but tliey do'not come into contact with the old, Tiie great, problem, therefor©, is how fco bring tii© right people together, now that classes have been so recast tin J social conditions so tremendously altered. War Widows' Marriage Bureau. Herr Braseh,, a merchant of Magdeburg, saw, during the: war, what was coming, and he set up a, marriage bureau, with, the aim, at- first, of facilitating the marriage of war widows and invalids. His activities were greatly extended later on. The National Fund far War Widows and Orphans cam© to his help. Th© directors of that fund supplied th© names tof the young women being Assisted by tha / fund who wiifhed to marry. Herr Brasch supplied the names of men. There was a committee of investigation on both sides, and, when th© organisations liad. made tU© fullest investigations and were 'in jx>sbc3.sion of all particulars, suitable persons were brought together. The work was highly successful but. of late, lack of funds haa interfered with it. " Dr. Kulhn, director of the Dresden Hygienic Institute, hag been busy advocating th© revival and extension of this system. Dr. WaLen weber, another campaigner, has set up a similar organisation at Dortmund, and Dr. Kuhn announces that he is going to follow hisexample in Dresden. They, of course, intend to make physigue on both sides the main consideration in the marriages arranged by th©ir bureaux. A Meeting House. Frankfort-on-Main has set up what is called a "House of - Confidence," where young people may meet, under proper conditions, at concerts, lectures, ana dances. This idea is likely to be taken up in other cities and towns. "It is a, (substitute," says a writer, "for the boarding-house and the club life of England, wilich we have not got in Germany." The campaigners are calling loudly for Government or civic help and control. "Th© old social order amonj? the ereat masses of the people has says another writer on the sub? ject, "an 4 something is necessary to take its place. Under it. marriage was easily achieved, and, in thevast majority of cases, successful. Now, in the confusion olr classes, under conditions which have brought about the impoverishing of some and the enriching of others, there is a social confusion and a lack of inter-communication between classes which strikes at the very root of the marriage system. So control is necessary till the social life of the country becomes, normal and more ordered again." Homes Wanted. . But theeampaigners do not wish the authorities merely to arrange marriages. They demand that married couples shall have a fair start in life; and the chief matter in this respect is that the Government or the municipality shall .provide houses for {hem. Housing conditions are so bad all over the country that the newly-married couples have been forced, in enormous numbers, to follow the example of the peasants and settle down with the parents of one of the parties." This state of affairs, the campaigners argue, is very unsatisfactory, and is responsible for much matrimonial unf happiness, and, in a great' proportion of cases, sows the seeds of separation and divorce.