This story about a German couple allegedly being too stupid to reproduce is all over the Blogosphere. I’m skeptical. Here’s why:

1. No one in the story has a name. For example, the only name given to the couple is “A German couple.” That by itself could be explained by privacy concerns, but if so, why give their ages? And what on earth reason is there for withholding the identity of spokesman for the clinic?
2. There is no such city as “Lubek.” There is a city called Lübeck (which is sometimes spelled “Luebeck”), and that city does have a university. Sloppy journalism, perhaps. Not a good sign
3. Based on the English translation “University Clinic of Lu(e)be(c)k,” one would assume that the university clinic associated with the University of Lübeck would go by the name “Universitätsklinikum Lübeck.” However, upon browsing the web site of the Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein - Campus Lübeck (University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein - Lübeck Campus) I did not locate a single instance in which the clinic was referred to simply as “University Clinic of Lübeck” rather than “University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein.” By contrast, its sister campus in Kiel does get referred to occasionally as “Universitätsklinikum Kiel,” or University Clinic of Kiel.
   UPDATE:

This objection may not be valid after all. According to commenter Nico, the Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein - Campus Lübeck is commonly referred to simply as “Uniklinik Lübeck,” i.e., “University Clinic of Lübeck.”

4. Something this outrageous should be all over the news in Germany. Maybe it is, but I haven’t found it yet. A Yahoo! search for the terms “Lübeck 30 36 [the ages of the purported couple]” turned up nothing of interest, nor did the first page of a more general search for Lübeck alone.
5. The clinic’s web site says nothing about this bizarre story. This is odd, considering that the Ananova story claims the university is “undertak[-ing] a study to try to find out if there are more couples with a similar lack of sex education.” It does, however, list a certain Frau Dr. Anja Aldenhoff-Zöllner as a contact person for the media.

While my initial research is far from conclusive, if I were a betting man, I’d say the blogosphere has just been punk’d. I’ve sent an email to Dr. Aldenhoff-Zöllner, inquiring as to the veracity of the story, which I’ve reproduced below. I’ll keep you posted.

Sehr geehrte Doktor Aldenhoff-Zöllner!

Momentan ließt man in der Internet-Zeitung “Ananova,” daß vor kurzem ein Ehepaar in Ihrem Klinikum um Hilfe gebeten hat, da sie keine Kinder hatten. Inzwischen habe man den Grund dafür enteckt, sie hatten niemals miteinander geschlafen, und wußten auch nicht einmal, was Geschlechtsverkehr ist. Jetzt werde bei der Uni weiter untersucht, ob es auch andere Paare gibt, die auch nicht wissen, was sie tun müssen, um Kinder zu bekommen.

Nach dem Artikel bei Ananova soll as alles beim “University Clinic of Lubek” geschehen sein. Stimmt es, oder ist die ganze Geschichte ein Joke? Hier der Link:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_957945.html

Vielen Dank für Ihre Hilfe.

mit freulichen Grüßen,
Hans Klugscheißer

Translation:

Dear Dr. Aldenhoff-Zöllner:

Right now, the Internet Newspaper “Ananova” is carrying a story claiming that a married couple recently sought treatment in your clinic because they didn’t have any children. They later learned that the reason they had no children is because they had never had sex, and didn’t even know what sex was. The story further reports that the University is now conducting further research to see if there are other couples out there who also don’t know what they need to do to have children.

According to the Ananova article, all this was supposed to have happened at the “University Clinic of Lubek.” Is it true, or is this whole thing just a joke? Here’s the link:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_957945.html

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Sincerely Yours,
Xrlq

UPDATE: Heiko Hebig has more. Marten, a commenter from Holland, points to a Dutch version of the story, which also doesn’t quote any sources. Another commenter, Alexander, finds no corroborating stories in Bild (Germany’s answer to the National Enquirer) or even the local Lübecker Nachrichten (Lübeck News), but does find a longer version of the story that ran in today’s Mirror. Now there’s a trusted source of unbiased information. Then again, the Mirror does fire its worst offenders, which is more than I can say for its American counterpart, the Boston Globe. He also points to this article in the medical journal Gynäkologische Endokrinologie, which a very small kernel of truth to the story: a passing reference to a couple that had never had sex because of an psychogenic erectile dysfunction. Lame.