Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
WHERE the NEWS ENDS By William Henry Chamberlin West Germany's Political Uproar WITHIN TWO MONTHS, two first-class political storms have erupted in normally placid Bonn. The first came with...
...The Social Democrats had nominated for the office Carlo Schmid, a man with considerable appeal beyond the ranks of the party...
...and the argument was that the Christian Democrats could be sure of winning only if they put up a strong candidate of their own...
...And the three votes of confidence which "Der Alte" received in national elections have been inspired by a steadily rising curve in German national prestige and in the German standard of living...
...is a ceremonial office which carries little real power) and many of the Christian Democratic members of the Bundestag, seeing in Erhard the most forceful and popular leader next to Adenauer, sympathized with this reluctance...
...The powerful, commanding personality of Adenauer has overshadowed all potential rivals, both among his political enemies and among his friends...
...First, observing how his personal friend and political ally, Charles de Gaulle, was virtually ruling France from the Presidential office, he seems to have felt that he might retain much of his former power after exchanging the Chancellorship for the Presidency...
...There was probably some sense of personal rivalry: Erhard is the only figure in the Cabinet who, because of the outstanding success of his old-fashioned liberal economic policies, stood out as a strong personality in his own right...
...Then Adenauer announced his own intention to stand for election to the Presidency...
...WHERE the NEWS ENDS By William Henry Chamberlin West Germany's Political Uproar WITHIN TWO MONTHS, two first-class political storms have erupted in normally placid Bonn...
...Moreover, Adenauer, more for political than for economic reasons, is strongly committed to the continental six-nation Common Market...
...As a former German exchange student in America put it: "I am grateful to Adenauer, and so...
...Adenauer's original design was to put up the rotund, enormously energetic and popular Minister of Economics, Ludwig Erhard, as the Christian Democratic candidate for the Presidency This design went astray when Erhard showed reluctance to be kicked upstairs (the Presidency, under the Constitution of 1949...
...Erhard...
...The crises are the product of the complicated personal relations between some of the men at the top...
...Whenever he spots a new Soviet thrust, designed to weaken or disrupt the Western alliance, he rushes in to break it up...
...Politically, Adenauer's changing decisions are unfortunate...
...Why, then, these two recent political crises...
...Adenauer, on the Western team, has been playing the role of linebacker...
...For several reasons Adenauer dislikes the idea of seeing Erhard as his successor...
...Political crises have been increasingly infrequent in postwar Germany for two reasons...
...constitutionally, his position seems sound, unless he is unseated by his own party...
...He probably doubts whether Erhard, a man of specialized economic knowledge, would diagnose these bear traps surely and promptly...
...a strong advocate of freedom of international trade, has been eager to see the Common Market somewhat diluted and relaxed, by the creation of a wider free trade area...
...But it soon became evident that the majority sentiment in his party was in favor of Erhard...
...I am sure are many other Germans, because he has done so much to restore Germany's good name in the world...
...Moreover, Adenauer seems to have been confident that he could appoint as his successor Franz Etzel...
...some 12 million Germans and people of German origin, driven from their homes east of the Oder-Neisse line, have been absorbed with amazing success into the economy...
...employment has been full and the wage trend has gone steadily upward...
...recent provincial elections show little change in the balance of voting strength...
...I am sure I would not have had such a friendly reception in America if it had not been for the Chancellor's record of unswerving loyalty to the ideals of Western anti-Communist alliance and a united Europe, of paying restitution to Israel for the Nazi crimes against the Jews, and of settling Germany's debts...
...But de Gaulle had secured a drastic modification of the French Constitution, very much enlarging the powers of the President...
...The first came with the announcement by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of his intention to be a candidate for the soon-vacant office of German President, a decision which would have implied his relinquishment of his present post...
...The second broke out when Adenauer reconsidered his decision and decided to remain Chancellor...
...Production and exports have zoomed...
...But in making this decision, Adenauer, despite his long experience and skill in political in-fighting, seems to have committed two miscalculations...
...Minister of Finance, a man whom he regarded as thoroughly in harmony with his views...
...These have not been the result of widespread popular discontent with the foreign or domestic policies of the Bonn Administration...
...And every year the bread-and-butter argument for Adenauer's Christian Democrats has become stronger...
Vol. 42 • June 1959 • No. 25
