House by house
May 14, 2011
Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with a brown envelope under his arm, Jens Gerhardt has arrived punctually at 1 p.m. in front of Susanne Karawek's home. Karawek, a personnel manager, is one of the 63,000 people in Hamburg who are required to participate in the 2011 census in the coming weeks.
Gerhardt, tasked with interviewing Karawek for the census, worked for the Regional Statistical Office for 37 years before retiring. Numbers are his passion. Carrying the demeanor of an upright bureaucrat, Gerhardt happily shows Karawek his identification before asking if he can come in and take a seat.
Religious identification
The first questions revolve around personal information.
"They are immediately separated from the other data after the questionnaire has been concluded," Gerhardt explains in order to dispel any doubt about the safety of people's personal data. "Everything is made anonymous."
Yet Karawek - his interviewee - seems a bit irritated by questions seven and eight, which ask about her religious identification and worldview. Raising her eyebrow, she says she finds question seven very personal and simply refuses to answer question eight.
She is lucky. The question about her worldview is the only one in the list of 46 that does not have to be answered. All the other questions are obligatory and a refusal to cooperate could result in a 700 euro ($988) fine.
Dispelling suspicion
Gerhardt does not press Karawek. Instead, he continues with the questionnaire. But again, Karawek feels uncomfortable answering questions about her profession.
"Why does the state need to have such detailed information?" she asks.
Gerhardt is used to getting this type of questions.
"When I've correctly explained everything, then people understand what it's all about and their suspicion disappears," he says with a little pride.
Gerhardt conducts around 30 interviews a week. The people randomly selected to participate in the census do not have to let him into their homes. However, up to this point nobody has refused to let him in.
Immigration background
Sometimes the interviewees do not speak German well enough in order to fully answer all the questions.
"Normally the kids jump in at that point to help, but as a last resort I also have a translator," Gerhardt says.
Gerhardt has participated in the census several times in years past. However, in contrast to today, at that time there were no questions about migration background.
"Clearly politicians want to know more about immigrants in order to possibly introduce certain programs," he speculates.
Confusing questions
Charlotte Drews-Bernstein hopes that the census will have a practical impact when it comes to an end. But she is a bit perplexed as she examines the questionnaire before her.
The self-employed 75-year-old belongs to the 17.5 million apartment and home owners that are required to fill out the questionnaire on their own.
"What in heaven is a rowed house?" she asks.
Do they mean a row house? Is her home freestanding, and is it a commercial building since there are businesses on the ground floor?
Bernstein checks the boxes based on intuition since she is not really sure of the right answer. When she is finished, she submits her questionnaire online. She does not worry about her information being hacked.
But Karawek feels differently. She is worried that her information could fall into the wrong hands. Gerhardt hastily reassures her that information leaks of the kind that recently struck Facebook and Sony PlayStation Network are not possible. All the information from the census is stored on an external computer that is not connected to the internet.
After the personal information of selected participants like Karawek and Bernstein has been collected and stored, it will be evaluated and the first results will be ready in the fall of 2012.
Author: Kathrin Erdmann / sk
Editor: Toma Tasovac