Just Call Him 181213 3 1234 5

BY 1975, nine years ahead of Orwellian projections, every West German citizen may be officially known to his government by a twelve-digit number. The government has sent the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) a proposal that would identify each person by six digits indicating his birth date, a seventh his sex and the century of his birth, the next four to distinguish him from others born on the same day, and the last a "control" number--which would make Chancellor Willy Brandt Number 181213 3 1234 5 or something very close to that. The number will follow a person from birth until 30 years after his death when, presumably, he would be expunged from the computers.

The government explains the move on the grounds that its voluminous registration system is being computerized. It also hopes to eliminate the confusing snarls that sometimes arise in a country where many people have the same surname (there are 600,000 Miillers alone in West Germany). Israel and the Scandinavian countries already have such systems, and a number of others, including Japan, are preparing to follow suit.

As most Germans seem to see it, bureaucratization is already so pervasive that the new system could not be any worse. "We are already overnumbered," wrote Munich's respectable Stueddeutsche Zeitung, "and who would have objections to a simplification of the system?" As it is, anyone moving from one city to another in West Germany must fill out an 18-inch-long questionnaire, in triplicate, first to deregister and then again to reregister.

But not everyone is pleased with the name-to-number switch. In an opinion poll about the change, 31% protested. "I have been a number long enough as a soldier and a prisoner of war," said a retired policeman. "I want to keep my name."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.