Two important demographic trends for advanced industrialised nations are: rapidly ageing populations and falling birth rates (Buck and Dworschak 2003; Henseke et al. 2009; Kirpal and Kühl 2006; Thun et al. 2007). These shifts are expected to lead to a rise in the average age of workforces and a long-term decline in the size of the working population (Köchling 2003). Demographic change, as a topic, has increasingly gained currency in recent years, especially since 2012 has been designated the European Year for Active Ageing by the European Commission. The European Commission has stated that the aims of their initiative are to improve working conditions and increase labour market participation for older people. However, these aims must be placed within the wider political-economic context of the global financial/economic crisis or, to be more sceptical, alongside a European-wide dismantling of the welfare state. This article examines some of the challenges that demographic change has presented in Germany. As the article discusses, one outcome of demographic shifts is a shrinking pool of workers to finance a growing number of pensioners. Germany makes an interesting case in how the tension between the German Stakeholder Model and the neo-liberal agenda of the Merkel government is reflected within the demographic change problem
