Familiengründung und Zeitlichkeit im Zweiten Weltkrieg in Deutschland

“Family creation under the time pressure of World War II in Germany” is a qualitative analysis of ego-documents and looks at dyadic decision making, emotions and mentalities related to creating a family during war. War did not deter people from having children, on the contrary. Rather than postpone and wait, people were in a rush to fulfill their generative decisions. Difficult circumstances and negative future expectations, combined with key elements of NS-ideology, led to a great eagerness for young couples to become parents. While family policy during the war has been studied, the wish to have children and the negotiations between couples before pregnancy, have not. The microhistories presented here, show that the experience of danger and existential hardships during war seemed to function as a generative accelerator, causing couples to go to great lengths to try and have children.