The AfD’s call to increase the birth rate as an instrument of ethnic-nationalist ideology - This is how the AfD still ticks. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has repeatedly aligned itself with nationalist and ethnocentric themes in its political orientation. One particularly controversial point is the repeated demand that German women should have more children to preserve “German identity.” This demand is not only closely tied to problematic ethnonationalist thinking, but it also raises fundamental ethical and sociopolitical concerns. The following will examine the background, the key figures, and the implications of this rhetoric.
Origin of the term
The term originally emerged in feminist and sociological contexts to highlight structural problems that prevent women from having children, such as a lack of childcare, precarious employment, or insufficient gender equality. Later, it was adopted by conservative and right-wing populist actors and linked to nationalist demands.
Historical and ideological roots
The demand for an increased birth rate among a specific population group has a long history and is deeply rooted in nationalist ideologies. During the Nazi era, for example, promoting childbirth was propagated as a means to strengthen the “body of the people.” The AfD, consciously or unconsciously, draws on these ideologies when it links the narrative of a “demographic decline” to the loss of German identity.
The specter of “population shrinkage” - The National Socialists spread fear of a “national death” due to falling birth rates. This idea was closely tied to the notion of a “population struggle” against supposedly “foreign races.” Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, warned of the “softening” of German society if women neglected their “natural duty” as mothers. This pressure on women to dedicate their reproductive capacity to the nation was staged as a patriotic duty.
Central figures and quotations
Björn Höcke, the AfD parliamentary leader in Thuringia, is particularly prominent in making such statements. In his book “You Can’t Step Into the Same River Twice” and in public speeches, he calls for a “demographic turnaround.” In a speech in Dresden, he said, “We must encourage the German woman to have more children again, to save our people from extinction.”
Similarly, Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, said during a debate, “Germany needs more family-friendly policies that ensure German families have more children again.” The phrasing “German families” is deliberately chosen to distinguish between autochthonous Germans and other population groups.
Ethnonationalist ideology
The demand for a higher birth rate among German women is frequently tied to the “population replacement” theory, which is also propagated by the AfD. This conspiracy theory suggests that migrants are deliberately being brought in to displace the native population. Höcke referred to this as a “life-threatening shrinking of the German people.” Women’s policy under the Nazi regime: childbirth as duty
In the Third Reich, women’s reproductive capacity was politicized and instrumentalized. National Socialist ideology viewed women primarily as mothers of the “Aryan national body.” Adolf Hitler stated in “Mein Kampf” (1925) that the survival of the people must be secured through the birth rate. With the introduction of the Mother’s Cross (1938), the number of children was directly rewarded: women with four, six, or eight children received state honors as a “service to the fatherland.” Propagandistic slogans such as “Children not Indians” (similar to today’s rhetoric) underscored the racist and ethnic-nationalist orientation of this policy. The goal was to increase the “Aryan race” in number while “life unworthy of life” was reduced through forced sterilizations and extermination programs.
Societal criticism
The AfD’s call has met with broad criticism, both in academia and in society. Critics point out that such statements reduce women to their role as childbearers and violate fundamental principles of equality. Moreover, the demand is interpreted as an expression of biopolitics that seeks to govern population policy along ethnic lines. Demographer Reiner Klingholz emphasized, “Germany’s birth rate is not the problem. Rather, we must ask how we can shape migration and integration to meet the challenges of demographic change.”
Political instrumentalization
The AfD’s rhetoric aims to stoke fear of losing national identity. By portraying demography as the central issue, it deflects from other challenges and creates a narrative that frames migrants as a threat. At the same time, women are politically instrumentalized to advance ethnonationalist ideals. The AfD’s demand that German women should have more children is an expression of ethnic-nationalist thinking and nationalist ideology. It reduces women to their role as bearers of children and ignores the complexity of demographic and societal realities. Instead of offering constructive solutions to challenges such as migration, integration, and social justice, the AfD spreads fear and relies on discriminatory narratives. The societal and political debate must aim to critically examine such ideologies and defend democratic values.
Under the Nazi regime, women were reduced to their role as mothers, expected to give children to the “Führer and fatherland.” Employment bans for married women and campaigns like “The German Woman and Her Living Space is the Family” reinforced this. The AfD strikes the same chord when, in its family policy platform, it calls for women to be steered more strongly toward family work and for their employment to be limited in favor of the “traditional mother role.” That must be opposed with all our might.
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