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05/01/2008: "Attempts to increase Germany's pathetic birth rate may be working"

Pandas are famously bad at sex. In fact, they are so unwilling to breed that zoo keepers have to resort to all kinds of tricks to get them to procreate, including showing them pornographic movies to get them in the mood.

Ursula von der Leyen must feel a certain sympathy with the panda keepers. One of her main tasks as Germany's family minister is to coax reluctant Germans into having children, so that the shrinking of the country's population can be slowed or even reversed.

At the moment she has plenty of reasons to celebrate: Preliminary birth statistics for 2007 appear to show that her policies are having the desired effect.

[ Let's hope the increase is not just because of decendants of immigrants. ]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,550506,00.html