To ensure that Germany's total population would reach one hundred million in twenty years, Germany launched an ambitious Family Planning Policy. Using administrative orders to increase the population was a first. But without a doubt, it was highly effective.
Nearly all married couples of childbearing age began answering the government's call and embarked on their baby-making plans. It was foreseeable that Germany's population would grow explosively over the next few years.
To prepare for the coming baby boom, the German government had to make early preparations. Hospitals, kindergartens, schools, and the like all needed to be built and arranged in advance, so that Germany could handle the baby boom steadily once it arrived. After all, this vast batch of newborns would become Germany's main strength in the future.
The reason Oscar had set the Family Planning Policy's term at twenty years was precisely because he feared that the next war might break out twenty years from now. If that happened, Germany had to prepare in advance. The most crucial link was having enough young men, the most important source of soldiers. Without sufficient manpower, there was simply no way to win this war!
Germany was not the only country that saw the importance of population; other nations did as well. But they had no way to provide large-scale subsidies to families with more children as Germany did. As a result, their population-promotion plans were not very effective and could not compare with Germany's Family Planning Policy at all.
Increasing the population through administrative orders was something that would take a long time before its effects could be seen.
Besides increasing its population to strengthen Germany, Germany also needed to work hard to digest the territories it had gained during the World War. These included the Eastern European Plain, as well