Population and the Economy in Germany, 1800-1990

Germany's turbulent history in the past two centuries has left its mark on her population. The industrialization of the nineteenth century promoted rapid population growth, and the spatial concentration of that industrialization provoked enormous internal migration. Germany's relatively late economic development left the country impoverished relative to North America and some other societies for most of the nineteenth century, promoting extensive emigration. Like most of western Europe, Germany experienced a sharp reduction in fertility and mortality rates during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but these transitions were more abrupt in Germany than elsewhere. Twentieth-century turmoil marked Germany's population through death and other demographic consequences of war and through the huge flows of refugees that followed both World Wars. This paper traces the main developments in German population for the past two centuries, stressing connections to economic issues.