Since the late 19th century, "population" has been seen as both a resource and a threat. It was seen as a resource when it strengthened a nation against its neighbours through quality and quantity. It was perceived as a threat when it degenerated and shrank. It was precisely the massive structural change in the wake of the industrial revolution that gave rise to the need for "order" in order to be able to absorb the changes. "Harmful" parts of the "population" were to be eugenically removed and its quality was to be improved. The threatening "underpopulation" in one's own nation was to be countered by increasing the birth rate in order to counter the pressure of threatening "overpopulation" from neighbouring countries. This model of the extinction or degeneration of one's own people and the threat posed by "inferior" other peoples characterised the population policy debate in Sweden and Germany in the first half of the 20th century, before it shifted to the "population explosion" in the Third World in the 1950s. This discussion is analysed in its transnational dimension. One focus is placed on the question of how "population" was made visible in the first place through techniques of visualisation, so that it has been perceived in a specific form ever since: as a perpetual problem. This also raises the question of the socio-political function of the population discourse. What accounts for its success, even though its catastrophic forecasts have not materialised for 100 years?

Most important publications:

• Etzemüller, Thomas: An eternal downfall. The apocalyptic population discourse in the 20th century, Bielefeld 2007
  
• Etzemüller, Thomas: "Thirty years after twelve"? The apocalyptic population discourse in the 20th century, in: Nagel, Alexander K./Schipper, Bernd U./Weymann, Ansgar (eds.): Apokalypse. On the Sociology and History of Religious Crisis Rhetoric, Frankfurt/Main, New York 2008, pp. 197-216
  
• Etzemüller, Thomas: Too traditional, too emancipated: Women as the source of the permanent demographic catastrophe, in: Villa, Paula-Irene/Thiessen, Barbara (eds.): Mütter - Väter: Diskurse, Medien, Praxen, Münster 2009, pp. 63-73
  
• Etzemüller, Thomas: The "population question" - and how it came into the world, in: zeitgeschichte-online January 2011, URL: <http://www.zeitgeschichte-online.de/md=Bevoelkerung>
  
• Etzemüller, Thomas: Die Angst vor dem Abstieg - Malthus, Burgdörfer, Sarrazin: eine Ahnenreihe mit immer derselben Botschaft, in: Haller, Michael/Niggeschmidt, Martin (eds.): Der Mythos vom Niedergang der Intelligenz. From Galton to Sarrazin: The thought patterns and errors of eugenics, Wiesbaden 2012, pp. 157-183
  
• Etzemüller, Thomas: (ed.): From "Volk" to "Population". Interventionist population policy in the post-war period, Münster 2015