Solingen tragedy puts spotlight on welfare for teenage moms

The investigation into the killing in Solingen has only just begun. A 27-year-old mother is believed to have killed five of her six children— aged 8,6,3,2 and 1 — before apparently attempting suicide. Details of the case are sketchy. Little is known about the circumstances in which the family lived. Nothing is known about motive let alone ways to prevent the tragedy. 

But the fact that the woman had her first child — the surviving 11-year-old — in her mid-teens, has immediately put the focus on offers of assistance for young mothers in Germany.

Counselling free of charge and can be anonymous

Teenage mothers have a legal right to counseling in Germany. Local governments' youth welfare services, NGOs and churches offer help and advice free of charge. Counselors assist pregnant teenagers in applying for financial support, finding housing, solving problems with their employers or schools, and finding childcare.

Medical issues are attended to by gynecologists and pediatricians, the mandatory health insurance covers all costs from medical examinations of pregnant women to regular check-ups for children from birth to adolescence.

The counsellor at the youth welfare office will assess the living conditions of the pregnant teenager: Does she still go to school or is she finishing vocational training? If she is living with her parents, can she stay there with her child and get help? Does she need financial assistance? And how much will the father be involved in the upbringing and financial support of the child?

The teenager gets help to apply for financial assistance and housing if necessary. "Mother and Child Homes" in major cities offer assisted accommodation for teenage mothers who cannot cope in their previous settings.

Read more: Teen pregnancies affect womens' lifelong earning potential

In Solingen, for example, the Mother and Child House Base offers interim accommodation for up to eight mothers with children aged 6 or under. Its website says it helps them build a healthy and loving relationship with the assistance of a trained caregiver or nurse and a housekeeper.

The youth welfare office also aims to help organize childcare. The goal is always to enable the young family to cope independently.

If both parents are under the age of 18, the youth welfare office formally takes over custody of the child, taking care of all legal formalities and financial issues until the mother turns 18. That is unless the teenage mother formally applies for an adult individual, for example a relative, to take over custody. 

An underage parent remains responsible for childcare, has the right to name the child, decide on its place of abode, decide on medical procedures and religious education.

Read more: 3 in 4 German daycare children are not getting proper care

Do the offers fail to reach those who need them?

Several organizations have been set up to ensure the children get off to a good start in life. They offer a wide range of information online, and the websites and phone numbers of helplines are also advertised on billboards or on public transport.

The foundation Early Assistance, founded by the German Ministry for Youth and Family Affairs in 2007, focuses on improving the situation of kids under 3. It also offers training for counsellors and welfare office staff. 

The Catholic aid agency Caritas is one of the major organizations catering to young families in Germany. "In Solingen we have several services for families — childcare workers, for example, visit families in their homes, there are self-help groups, counselling for single parents etc.," Caritas press spokeswoman Mathilde Langendorf told DW.

"But with the coronavirus this has been difficult to keep this going and it was not always easy to reach us on the helplines. This means that not everyone who needed it got help in recent months, although many will have seen their problems — for example financial insecurity — get worse."

Read more: Coronavirus burdens working moms twice as much as dads

The United Nations Population Fund associates teenage pregnancy with poverty: Countries such as Niger and Bangladesh have far more teenage mothers compared with economically rich countries such as Switzerland and Japan.

The same pattern is to be seen at the domestic level. In the UK, for example, around half of all underage pregnancies are concentrated among the lowest 30% of the population in socioeconomic terms.

Across the EU birth rates map poverty rates: In Germany the number of births to teenage mothers has continually declined over the past 20 years, as they have across the EU.

In Germany around 12,000 per year or just under 2% of all births are to mothers under the age of 20, whereas in economically weak Bulgaria and Romania the figure amounts to more than 8% of births.

Read more: Rich countries ofthen fail to ensure childrens' wellbeing

Rise in abuse and neglect

In Solingen neighbors told DW of violent arguments between the mother and her partner. Whether or not the case has a background of child neglect and abuse is yet unclear. 

But the number of such incidents is on the rise in Germany. In August 2020, the German welfare offices sounded alarm bells. More children than ever were falling victim to abuse or neglect. In 2019 the authorities had registered 55,500 such cases, a 10% increase on the year before — and the highest figure ever. Every second victim was under the age of 8. Most of them were living with a single parent.

Read more: German authorities overwhelmed by increase in numbers of child abuse

Most of the tipoffs had come from police or courts, 15% of them anonymously. The increase in numbers has been attributed to improved vigilance, possibly because of an increase in media reports on child abuse in recent years.

When the welfare office finds signs of abuse or neglect, they are obliged to act. This can mean taking the parents to court. If the child is deemed to be in acute danger, it has to be removed from its parents and put into care. This happened in 16% of the cases in 2019. Welfare offices are asking for more staff to be able to cope with rising numbers.

The German child protection association warns against premature analysis in the current case. "We don't know the background of this terrible case, we don't know what kind of assistance the family was getting, whether the welfare office was already involved, whether the mother actually tried to get any help," spokeswomen Juliane Wlodarczak told DW.

"The Child Protection Association believes that in such a case we should pause and take time to mourn the victims, and hold back on jumping to conclusions."