Word: selbstmord
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...main reason for West Berlin's suicide rate is simply that it has an enriched supply of the factors that go with Selbstmord. More than 21% of the population is over 65; many are aging war widows who see little left to live for. Moreover, Thomas observes, the city's geographic and political isolation seems to reinforce the pyschological isolation of the would-be suicide. Indeed, many Berlin suicides are young West Germans who have come to the city specifically to be alone-a situation that weighs heavily around Christmastime, a high suicide season in West Berlin...
Politically, West Berlin is a free-world showcase. Psychologically, it is the undisputed capital of what Germans call Selbstmord-self-murder. Locked deep in East German territory, the city of 2,200,000 reports an average of 20 suicide attempts a day, three successful. Last year 932 West Berliners killed themselves, mostly by hanging, sleeping pills, gas and drowning. The city's suicide rate of 39.5 per 100,000 persons is almost double that of West Germany and probably unmatched anywhere else in the civilized world...
...killers the time had come to kill themselves. Nazi officials and bigwig Germans began to practice the act for which their language has an expressive word-Selbstmord, self-murder...
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