Eva Herman's view is antiquated. This woman is hypocrisy personfied. This is someone with a successful career, one kid and a nanny that she can rely on "100%". Perhaps instead of taking time off to write her drivel she should spend some more time with her son and better yet, work on conceiving one more! You see its very easy to preach when standing on the pulpit but practicing is never that easy. While one cannot ignore the potential problems of a declining birth rate in Europe, sending women back to the kitchen is not the solution.

lil, New Jersey, USA

To Albert Einstein who thinks mothers should get a paying wage - no one PAYS you to do things which are intrinsicly worthwhile. Having a family is a BENEFIT to you, not an anchor to lug around. My marriage is ALOT of work, but no one PAYS me to do it. There are rewards to family that manifest over time, and on balance, outweigh the costs. Human beings would DIE out if we only applied BUSINESS math to these choices. The reason our population is collapsing is partly to do with our dependence on the State for entitlements - we no longer "need" children in our old age because we rely on everyone elses. More socialism is not the answer. And by the way, I'm male and I work from home while my wife works downtown during the day. When we have our kid, I'll be playing the "mommy" and I have no plans to bill my wife for it.

Frank Zanetta, Philadelphia, PA, USA

It's time for Europe to wake up to the European genocide going on around them. Your ancestors would be ashamed of your self-hatred you posses. It's time to stand up, be PROUD of who you are and your heritage, and take your nations back from the brink of loss.

I pray for your success.

German American, Illinois, USA,

Eva Herman is 100% correct.
It's wonderful to see such a beautiful woman wanting to have children, and understanding that motherhood is the most important job any woman will ever face.

Norman Clerc, Jacksonville, USA/Florida

Well it is good to see that some Germans are starting to wake up to the genocide they face, I say genocide because the German people are dying out and being replaced by foreigners at such a rapid rate whilst the politicians do all they can to fuel this process that it cannot be labeled anything else.

This is a step in the right direction though, both the Pope and other influential figures such as Eva Herman have made public statements explaining that Europeans need to have more children, although I think if they were to explain the demographic projections for European nations over the next couple of hundred years, and that Europeans will eventually be the minorities in their own nations and further down the track become extinct through low birth rates and acts of miscegenation, it would start to really wake Europeans up to the reality of the situation.

Brian, London, England

Im sure there's a master plan somewhere. I think bird-flu will probadly change the world some.

Leonard, Sydney, Australia

Eva Herman has shown great courage in saying this. I know from personal experience just how vicious the sisters can be when you challenge their political dogma.

Herman is right of course and the feminist backlash proves it. Feminism HATES the family with a passion and they also hate debate. They do anything to silence their detractors and it ioften starts with personal attacks on their character and escaulates from there.

Well said Eva. I support you 100% Now, if only more people in this country would wake up too!

George Rolph, Bromley, Kent

Apart from the forenames that give the game away you cannot help but reckon which are male and which are female comments.

I have considered for a long time that a proper wage should be paid for the task of child rearing. As things are this is a thankless and unrewarded task that parents are expected to fulfil. Instead parents raise the next generation of work units for the capitalists entirely free of charge. Then they hand over their children to serve the capitalist system as cannon fodder or factory fodder.

I suggest that the capitalists (who already avoid tax like it was a plague) be made to contribute to a fund to provide the £13,500 - per child - to parent's households and without raising prices.

May I suggest that we start with Auzzie media magnates ;-)

Bert.

Albert Einstein, West Mids,

Germany has learned it's lesson over the past century. It used to be "raise your leg, love is calling, the Kaiser needs more soldiers."
WW II changed all that, why have children for the Regierung to go into war and kill them?
It's been a known fact that Germany is dying out, too few children. Maybe the rest of the world i.e Africa etc. should take the lesson?

hermine, Gold Canyon,

Men and women might be created differently but not all of them conform to your stereotypes, and you can't make a does from a should. You may think all women should be fulfilled by a home and children but I'm afraid it just ain't so. I know any number who don't fit your pattern, me included. The world doesn't fit your or Eva's neat little recipe. Tough .

alexandria, Sheffield, UK

Frau Herman is on the mark. It is not just a question of the survival of Germany, but of the survival of Western Civilization. The women of Europe, and The United States, must give serious thought to the consequences of the choices they make. Some things are more important than self.

David Westphal, Key West, Fl., USA

I agree that action needs to be taken to raise the low European birth rates but I do not agree that the answer to that is to send women back to the "Kinder, Kuchen, Kirche" days. What's wrong with admitting that most women want both a fulfilling career and children? I know very few women who are extreme in either direction. Most women want a fulfilling job that allows them to use their education and their minds but they also want a family and children and this is exactly what men want too - a combination. Why should there be one or the other? Better childcare is the answer or more flexible careers for women that allow us to take a break for child-rearing and freelance or work part-time without being consigned to the scrap-heap for putting family first for a few years.

We need to reduce the tax burden on young married couples and increase flexible working: that's all. As for Eva Herman, she just sounds like a bitter old woman.

MB, Edinburgh,

Eva Hermann - a laughing stock for most German women. Don't worry.. most women here think she's two-faced. She has had the career and now she's thinking she might like to stay at home - but at the same time, she is taking time off the housework to write books and earn more money. Ha, ha. Good one, pull the other leg.

She's got enough money, more than most women. She's also married - and many mothers have been left high and dry by men - does this, therefore, mean that they should stay at home and be content with the pittance that the state gives them? Or should they actually do something to earn their bread, too?

Eva Hermann - a hypocrite.

Tina, Düsseldorf, Germany

I think she has made quite a good point.
If the low birthrates continue amongst whites, Europe will become even more of a mini-arabia.

W.S. MItchell, Salisbury,

Herman is right. Men and women are created different. Women are wired to be more fulfilled keeping the home. This is generally the case, and women can do it in different ways, but we can't just deny the differences between men and women and have a perfect unisex society. Women who are homemakers have a very difficult job, but every one I have ever known says it is the most rewarding career they could imagine. Too bad every women can't do it who has kids.

Phil Newman, Tigard, Oregon

In 1941, Theodore Kauffman wrote "Germany Must Perish", a book which called for the forced sterilization of the ENTIRE POPULATION of Germany.

The ship is sinking, ny, ny

Luckily with HER stone-age attitude, Alice Scwarzer's ilk will die out with her....

P Beck, London,

Eva Herman preaches assidously what she didn't do herself. It's all very well now to say "One marriage and three children would have been better". What stopped her? Apparently the fact that being a newsreader was so much more exciting. Most female newsreaders in Germany have managed one marriage and several children. Hell, even most of the anchorwomen managed. So what is she telling us? Do as I say, don't do as I do. Which I find sickening in any circumstance. Calling her a Nazi is certainly pushing it - she's just one dumb blonde!

Doris Faden, Munich, Germany

When are Gemans going to stop groveling when the "nazi" card is played?

They should start replying with statements like:

"yes, maybe you're right and I am a nazi- if this is true perhaps you should watch your back!"

Maybe this will happen once you are up to your ears in diversity as we are here. Boy is it fun...

Sympathetic American, Anonomous, Arkansas, USA

hmm, of course, because women staying at home was popular in Germany exclusively for the duration of Nazi rule 1933-1945, and not at any other time in Germany's approx. 2100 year history! Just goes to show that there are people who, if they dislike someone and wish to make a criticism of them reach straight for the word 'Nazi'... or 'fascist' or 'racist' etc. etc. etc. without a moment's thought.

Marco, bhm, uk

Nazi's liked fresh air and opera too. Are fresh air and opera therefore also to prohibited as 'Nazi ideals' of tabloid speak? She is quite right to point out that the Nazi government promoted schemes whereby children were begot outside of wedlock - her common sense observations, which do no more than appeal to individuals not to be coerced by society into a life choice which may not be in their heart or hormones, could not be in greater contradistinction to the breeding programme of the Nazi government. It is a great shame that those who have made these slurs of her views are unlikely ever to be sued for defamation against her altruistic intentions.

So many women are in misery today, often forced to depend on anti-depresive medications, and mainly because of pressure they feel from contemporaneous socio-politics that forces them to ignore instincts and feelings which would otherwise guide most female individuals into quite another life of choice.

We want your book in English too Eva!

Kate, London,

Nazi talk? Is it being a nazi when addressing the dieing demographic of Germany and the whole of Europe? Is it being a nazi when someone with influence DOESNT support the "perfect" way of life that strains on less kids, higher costs, and ultimately less people?

It's sick. To see what's happening in Europe is depressing. The same people who led the world into the Industrial and Modern age, controlled all four corners of the globe, and have brought onto humanity more in 400-500 years than thousands before... It's a shame governments even have to pay couples to have kids now.

Andreja Trbojevic, Redmond, USA

She is right. If the European countries don't start having babies
they will be gone in hundred years, a footnote in history.
The Alice Schwarzer's of the world might not see that as a bad thing but I do. It is not hate to want your country and people to survive.

Michael, New York, New York