West Germany Can’t Count on Citizenry at Census Time

BONN — West Germany is commonly perceived as a modern, technocratic country where statistics are up-to-date and virtually all-inclusive.

Yet no one knows whether there are 61 million West Germans, as the Federal Office for Statistics says, or only 60 million, or even fewer. Or possibly more.

This is because there has been no census for 17 years, and if the radical Greens party has its way, the census scheduled to be taken in May will not be of much help.

The Greens are calling for a nationwide boycott of the count. In their view, the questionnaires drawn up for the census takers’ use are too Orwellian, too suggestive of Big Brother.

Over government posters promoting the census, critics have plastered stickers saying that “Only sheep let themselves be counted.”

Government officials insist that census-taking is a serious and necessary business. Horst Waffenschmidt, an official of the Interior Ministry, said the other day:

“How can we plan ahead in the fields of housing, pensions, energy, medical benefits, environment, and many others, if we don’t know how many people we have, how old they are, and what their needs are? We need reliable information from our citizens.”

But such information has been hard to get. In 1980, plans for a census collapsed at the last moment in a dispute between federal and local authorities over who would pay for it.

In 1983, two weeks before another scheduled census, opponents won a court injunction on grounds that there was no law preventing census data from being passed on to other government authorities.

Now, about 1,600 tons of census forms are being readied for distribution to 25 million households by about half a million temporary census workers. But some towns have not been able to find enough workers to distribute and collect the forms.

Originally, the plan had been to use civil servants for the census taking, but so many dragged their heels at the prospect that authorities in West Germany’s two largest cities, West Berlin and Hamburg, have had to resort to hiring outsiders. Even so, the unpopularity of the task and the low pay have hampered recruitment. West Berlin, the most populous city, needs 20,000 workers but has been able to enlist only 5,000. Hamburg, the second largest, needs 13,000 but has only 3,000.

Opposition to the census is based largely on two objections:

--The forms are long and complex, with dozens of questions, and many of the questions are of a personal nature, dealing with employment, income, property, even household habits.

--Many people fear that the information they supply will be computerized and passed on to income tax authorities, the police and other government agencies.

Identity Cards Proposed

These people cite an idea put forth by Interior Minister Friedrich Zimmermann that every West German be given an identity card and a computer file. Zimmermann suggested that this would be helpful in tracking down terrorists.

Government officials concede that census data will be put into computers, but they promise that adequate steps will be taken to protect it. And they insist that the data will be used only by the appropriate government agency--for planning purposes.

Under West German law, people who refuse to cooperate with the census taker are subject to heavy fines. Nevertheless, aversion to the census remains high. In a trial census last year in Stuttgart, about 40% of the people refused to cooperate fully.

Many officials worry that people will complete the forms but give inaccurate information.

“There is a deep mistrust at all levels of society,” Maja Stadler-Euler, a Hamburg lawyer, said the other day. She was one of those involved in effectively stopping the 1983 census.

The Greens, who received 8.3% of the votes in last January’s national election, and their sympathizers could seriously disrupt the census. Justice Minister Hans Engelhard said their call for a boycott is “the most outrageous, unparalleled act in federal parliamentary history.”

But few authorities are taking lightly the fears of people who, mindful of the Nazi era, worry that information provided for the census might come back to haunt them.

The Interior Ministry’s Waffenschmidt said: “The government takes these fears very seriously. But data protection is being guaranteed. We expect full cooperation from the citizens.”

As to the shortage of census workers, Waffenschmidt said he thinks the problem will be resolved in time. Already, he said, there is no problem in most communities.

Would he be willing to help out?

“Yes, if I am needed. I will be happy do do it.”