Scarce child
The West German youth welfare offices have recently had to devote themselves to a highly annoying sideline: they have to defend themselves against the accusation that by interpreting the legal provisions too narrowly they have contributed to the emergence of a "grey market" in which a commodity that is not commonplace is traded, namely small children.
The accusation was recently made by the Overseas Weekly, which informs Americans stationed in NATO Europe about the world. Overseas Weekly proclaimed in two bold front-page headlines: "Americans Bypass German Laws to Adopt Children."
Federal German municipal officials, the paper reported, had admitted that unborn babies traded briskly on a semi-legal "grey market."
will. "Even though orphanages are overflowing with unwanted children, American couples are forced to circumvent German law in order to find children for adoption."
Südwestdeutsche Gazetten took up the spectacular news. The Heidelberg Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung wrote: "'Overseas Weekly' rightly claims that in Germany thousands of babies are 'bought' by American families in addition to the normal adoption cases." The main transshipment point is the Kaiserslautern suburb of Vogelweh. 5,000 NATO Americans and their families live in Vogelweh.
The news is true insofar as numerous Americans stationed in the Federal Republic of Germany are trying as hard as mostly unsuccessfully to adopt German infants as children.
Kaiserslautern's Lord Mayor Dr. Walter Sommer has examined the phenomenon and names three reasons for the special urge of Americans to have German small children, namely social feeling, tradition and naivety:
- Post-war reports by American newspapers gave the impression that there were masses of uncared for children in Germany;
- American families of German descent believe in the need for a refresher with German blood;
- in the opinion of many US citizens, children of German blood become particularly capable Americans.
In addition - and this is confirmed by the statistics - there is a growing tendency in all American social strata to regulate the offspring through adoption - and not through one's own children.
The same goes for Americans in Europe. Asserts Clerk Donath, head of the youth welfare office in Darmstadt: "The applications have grown to such a large number that we can no longer accept any more." And Clerk Westenburger, head of the youth welfare office in Kaiserslautern, states: "Children are in short supply. We also have to consider our people, German parents.«
However, it is not the lack of children that has led to numerous American families raising their German child via the "grey market" but rather the perfectionism of German authorities and laws.
As soon as an illegitimate child is born - it's only about such a child - the local youth welfare office takes over the so-called official guardianship by law. Above all, the authority is responsible for the "asset management" of their ward, i.e. it takes care of the collection of maintenance payments.
If an unmarried mother wants her child to be adopted, she must report this intention to the youth welfare office, which keeps a list of applicants willing to adopt. The office tries - in often months of work - to determine which child suits which applicant. First, the applicant then receives a revocable long-term care permit. The youth welfare office now monitors for as long as possible whether the child and foster parents are a good match. If there are no objections, the no less lengthy and complicated adoption process begins, as prescribed in the Civil Code.
Overseas Weekly revealed: "Jugendamt (Darmstadt) officials admitted that thousands more children are being adopted without going through the prescribed process." Indeed, the European Nato-Americans have devised a system that is as simple as - for the children's mothers - is profitable.
It works like this: An American family that wants to adopt a German child hires a girl who is looking forward to giving birth as a housemaid for this purpose. The Americans pay the girl a handsome wage, cover all the childbirth costs and also generously reward the confinement period.
In return, the girl "signs over" her child to the wealthy American couple. The Americans rush to the youth welfare office with this document, because now, according to Overseas Weekly reporter Dan Ford, "the family has a pretty strong claim" to the child.
When an American couple shows up at the youth welfare office with the "declaration of transfer" from their German "housemaid," they can be certain that they have jumped some difficult obstacles on the adoption course: They claim a specific child that the mother had given them; it does not need to be put on the waiting list; it bypasses the period of the maintenance permit.
Amtmann Westenburger explains the practice of the youth welfare offices to let the Americans keep the child they “bought” in this way: “Financial settlements to the child’s mother prove that the unmarried girl is doing badly and that the child gives up her child with a light heart, but above all that Americans are very serious about adoption."
Of course, these Americans also have to go through the procedure of final adoption. It lasts at least six months, but often longer than a year. Dan Ford reported in Overseas Weekly that an American captain who had already adopted two children declared: "They make sure you're always on your feet."
West Germany's civil servants, according to the resigned Overseas Weekly, have no hope that the legal provisions on adoptions will be relaxed. 'Children don't make laws. You can only hope someone is willing to skip the paperwork to give them a home.”
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