Sinking of the Bismarck legacy of pensions
The German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, introduced the world's first state pension system in the 1880s.
You had to be 70 years old - and the expectation was that you would probably only live a few years after that to collect it. But in 1916, they lowered the pensionable age to 65.
It has remained at 65 for almost a century and it will take a brave government to juggle with the political sensitivity of raising that age again.
"It is a part of our political system and we pay for it - the employees, the employers and the state," says Wolfgang Wippermann at the Berlin Free University.
"They have to continue with this, otherwise there will be a revolution of the pensioners."...
Read entire article at BBC News
You had to be 70 years old - and the expectation was that you would probably only live a few years after that to collect it. But in 1916, they lowered the pensionable age to 65.
It has remained at 65 for almost a century and it will take a brave government to juggle with the political sensitivity of raising that age again.
"It is a part of our political system and we pay for it - the employees, the employers and the state," says Wolfgang Wippermann at the Berlin Free University.
"They have to continue with this, otherwise there will be a revolution of the pensioners."...