The writer Caroline Wahl has become famous in recent years with novels about two sisters who grow up with an alcoholic mother. Afterwards there was a lot of discussion about the books. However, it was primarily about questions of literary taste - and almost never about the themes of the two novels: What a brutal fate it is to grow up as a child of alcoholic parents.
But for many children in Germany, this is exactly the reality. According to a rather conservative estimate by the Federal Center for Health Education, around one million children and young people grow up with an alcohol-dependent parent. Around two thirds of these children later develop mental disorders or become alcohol dependent themselves.
This also contributes to the devastating overall figures: in 2024, according to the Federal Ministry of Health, 8.6 million people aged 18 to 64 consumed risky amounts of alcohol, and 2.2 million met the medical criteria for addiction. Addiction researchers speak of a “disturbed drinking culture” in Germany: intoxication is seen as something cool here, while in other countries it is embarrassing to lose control.
“Come on, a glass is fine!”
Anyone who is around 40 years old today can actually remember a youth in which there were few things cooler than a complete alcohol crash. Preferably three or four times a week. Twenty years later, the consequences of this can be clearly seen. Many have survived the years of high consumption well for the time being, but some have fallen by the wayside, are still fighting from withdrawal to withdrawal, live on the streets, and some have even taken their own lives.
Binge drinking was often the start of a drug career. Marijuana is often referred to as a gateway drug, but in reality very few people think of using harder drugs while sitting on the couch stoned. You're more likely to cross such boundaries if you're offered something in a club while drunk. Such stories of excess were initially considered cool; it was only when the rest of life collapsed that those around them turned away. Until then, pressure was put on people who didn't want to drink: “Come on, one glass is fine!”
It's impressive how well a society can ignore such a huge problem, even when bestsellers are published about it. Otherwise you would only have to walk through inner cities with your eyes open to see what alcohol can do. However, cityscape debates do not trigger the victims of the “disturbed drinking culture”, although the feeling of security always drops particularly sharply when drunken men appear. And the real dramas take place behind closed doors. Anyone who wants can listen to the stories in women's shelters. But who wants that?
The fates of addicts become footnotes
Instead, debates revolve around whether it is better to drink a glass of wine in the evening or not at all. It's rare to see people who can't stick to one drink. No one sets out to become clinically addicted. Very few people start the evening with a bottle of vodka. For adults it tends to start with the after-work beer, which turns into two and so on. Addiction creeps in. Thresholds such as “one glass in the evening” give the misleading impression that this consumption is safe.
Of course, everyone can decide for themselves how much they drink. But it should at least be part of the public perception of the cost of normalizing consumption. Instead, the weak are sorted out, and the fates of addicts are recorded as footnotes in statistics: the probability that it will happen to you is very low. And aren't addicts somehow to blame because they don't just stop at that one delicious glass of wine?
In reality, you never know which path a substance will take you. One stroke of fate can be enough for controlled consumption to become uncontrolled. To some extent, it is also a matter of luck how susceptible you are: some people can consume even harder drugs than alcohol once a year without becoming addicted. For others, the initial consumption is quickly followed by daily consumption.
The beauty of free societies is that some problems improve without government intervention. Today, binge drinking is rather uncool: According to health insurance data, 6,550 young people between the ages of twelve and 18 were treated for alcohol poisoning nationwide in 2024; in 2012 there were more than 20,000 cases. As a representative of the Vollrausch generation, you can only welcome this: it wasn't all that cool. Especially with regard to the friends who are no longer there. They deserve to be featured at least once.
