What Does it Mean to be Poor in Wealthy Germany?

from Deutsche Welle

This month’s publication of a new report on poverty in Europe has attempted to prize open a nation of resolutely blind eyes to a harsh reality of life in contemporary Germany: life on the breadline.

Poverty is a moveable famine. In a world where one man’s penury is another man’s wealth, geographical location dictates what constitutes destitution. And although on paper, Germany is one of the world's wealthier nations, it is nonetheless home to throngs of people struggling to make ends meet. What is more, if the findings in the Federal Statistics Office’s “Life in Europe” report are anything to go by, millions more are at risk of becoming officially “poor.”

The breadline quoted in the report is 856 euros ($1,135) for a person living alone and 1,798 euros for a family with two children. In reality, however, many people are already living below it. So how does poverty look in this highly developed country?

Outsiders looking into Germany are often stunned at the generosity of the social welfare system, and while it is doubtless among the most charitable of its kind, being at the bottom of the financial ladder of any society is never going to be a pleasant place to be.

Eyes wide shut

Brother Antonius of a Berlin Franciscan Monastery, who reports a steady increase in the number of "ordinary" Germans coming to the daily soup kitchen since it set up 15 years ago, says the worst thing about being poor is the isolation it brings with it.

“People don’t need to read reports, but just have to open their eyes and their ears to realize that we have a poverty issue here. But they don't look because they don’t want to accept the struggles going on around them,” he said.

“When you are poor, you’re on your own and likely as not you have endless amounts of time to kill.” For millions, being poor in Germany is intrinsically connected to the persistent problem of high unemployment.

Under the Hartz IV social welfare program introduced by the Schröder administration to ensure the long-term unemployed a basic level of financial security, a single claimant is entitled to 345 euros monthly and couples to 311 euros each. For families with children, there is a supplementary payment of between 207 and 276 euros monthly, depending on the age of the child. In addition, the government foots rental bills -- the amount depends upon average local housing costs -- and most heating bills.

Scrimping is frustrating

Bert Hansen is out-of-work bookkeeper, husband and father who tops up his benefit payments with a so-called one-euro job, which allows claimants to earn a maximum of 180 euros monthly for a 30-hour working week. Even then, he says, it’s not easy.

“There are so many things which you can’t do without money and that makes you feel shut out. We have fewer choices even when it comes to simple things like buying diapers, hygiene items and food. While society talks about the benefits of eating organic, we have no option but to go to discount supermarkets.”

And while he tries to make the most of his situation, and has decided to help others who share his lot by working for his hourly euro in a soup kitchen and in a Berlin church, Hansen says it is “frustrating” to be constantly scrimping.

Brother Antonius believes it is an inability in many German families to manage what money they have, which feeds the problem of poverty.

“Families come to us asking for food for breakfast and dinner, and we are supposed to report them to the authorities on the basis that the government provides a family allowance to provide food for the children," he said. "But the money gets spent on other things.”

He says too many people buckle too easily under the weight of advertising, interest-free credit deals and peer pressure.

“It might be a cliché to say this, but these days everybody wants to have everything, and the money to pay for it has to come from somewhere,” he said.

Time for non-monetary values

Bert Hansen agrees that it is hard, particularly for young people, to live in a society so driven by consumerism without falling prey to its dazzling enticements.

“Many parents are helpless, they can’t argue with their kids, can’t tell them when they can’t afford things,” he said.

The upshot is debt and a greater struggle with what money they do have. Hansen says the answer is to teach children that they can live with less and to reintroduce the concept of values.

Former chancellor of West Germany, Helmut Schmidt, recently went down on record with Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper saying: “There needs to be an end to the complaining about ‘poverty in Germany’. Take the case of an 18-year-old girl who has a child and who gets a flat and a television provided by social welfare, she doesn’t need to pay the rent herself. This girl is considered poor, but in reality she is far better off than we were at her age.”

But as Bert Hansen stresses, that was then and this is now.

“We may well have a higher standard of living now than we used to, but costs have gone up as well. I know it is not possible to look at every single case individually, but neither is it right to talk in sweeping generalizations," he said. "People say Hartz IV claimants have enough to live off, but in reality, that is not true. It is an existential minimum.”

Tamsin Walker