The Legacy of Konrad Adenauer
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
PERSPECTIVES The Legacy of Konrad Adenauer By William Henry Chamberlin IT has been widely observed of Konrad Adenauer, who last week retired as Chancellor of the German Federal Republic,...
...The contrast, on almost every count, has impressed me as being very sharp and seems to warrant confidence in the stability of the free institutions which prevail in the larger and more populous part of Germany that escaped Soviet occupation and the imposition of Communist tyranny...
...The German success story, the most striking of the postwar era in Europe, would not have been possible with a man of lesser stature and ability than Adenauer possessed...
...Far more important, though, is the fact that he has handed over to Ludwig Erhard, chief architect of the German "economic miracle,' a political situation that has difficulties and problems, but no visible major crises...
...Nazism is discredited, if only because it brought on ruin and desolation unequalled since the time of the Thirty Years War...
...Nor could it have been brought off if the Chancellor had not met the psychological needs of his age...
...In some respects, however, Der Alte fulfilled an even more difficult task than the Iron Chancellor...
...His memoirs, announced for early publication, should be one of the most interesting works of its type...
...Bismarck led from strength, Adenauer from weakness...
...He does not suffer fools gladly, and his lack of esteem for politicians, including many of his own party, is no secret...
...I saw a good deal of Germany during the period of the Weimar Republic, and I have visited the country 10 times since the end of World War II...
...PERSPECTIVES The Legacy of Konrad Adenauer By William Henry Chamberlin IT has been widely observed of Konrad Adenauer, who last week retired as Chancellor of the German Federal Republic, that he may well be the greatest German statesman since Bismarck...
...He has been so sure of the Tightness of his goals that he has often been willing to cut corners and resort to sharp practice to insure victory at the polls...
...Ultimately, the forging of a united Germany around a hard Prussian core was a less demanding job than rebuilding the morally and materially shattered Germany of the postwar years into its present position as an equal partner in the Western Alliance...
...Today, scarcely a trace remains of the German dream of necessary regeneration through revolution, either of the racist-nationalist or class-warfare type...
...After World War I, Germany was seething with agitation for revenge and filled with both Right- and Left-wing extremism...
...A good man, No...
...He is known to believe that a meeting held at his home after the first postwar German national election in 1949, in which he successfully opposed the "big coalition" with the Social Democrats favored by some of the more Left-inclined members of his own party, was important in paving the way for later close collaboration with the conservative United States of Eisenhower and Dulles...
...Adenauer's personal qualities, his perseverance in giving a Western orientation to his nation's foreign policy, his self-confidence and ability to provide strong leadership to a broken and demoralized people, are among the chief factors that have contributed to Germany's astonishing recovery...
...Adenauer may be relied upon to look out for his own reputation...
...But the aftermath of World War II was profoundly different...
...The old man is brusque and domineering...
...Asked for his opinion on the Chancellor, an editor of one of Germany's leading newspapers replied: "A great man, Yes...
...His paternalism (stern at times, benevolent at others), his old-fashioned conservatism, his contempt for personal demagogy—all had their appeal to a shellshocked people...
...To a people that had seen its past dreams turn to dust and ashes, that wanted above everything else to get back to normal living, that was sick to death with propaganda and ideology, Adenauer's kind of leadership was welcome...
...Communism is equally discredited, because it is identified with the imperialism of a foreign power and because of the sorry fruits it has produced in East Germany...
...There is much truth in the criticism of Der Alte which one hears in Germany, especially from intellectuals...
Vol. 46 • October 1963 • No. 22
