[The desire to have children (author's transl)].

During the past fourtytwo years the birth statistics of Bavaria show that the percentage of intramarital first children increased from 1/3 to 1/2 of all children born within marriages. The percentage of the marital second born children increased relatively less from 25% in 1935 to around 30% in 1977. During the same time the percentage of third and fourth children decreased from 38,8% to 19,2% by approxiamately 1/2. For some time now close correlation exists between economic competition and achievement stress and social, sexual, and generative behaviour. Not the modern contraceptives are responsible for the random and sensitive characteristics of the desire for children in couples since contraceptives only increase the planning of children but the vagaries of the future expectations in a dubious economic and social system are responsible.