Split in the Coalition

For seven years no one inside his own coalition had dared to challenge so boldly the authority of old Konrad Adenauer. The challenge came from the second-largest party in his coalition, the right-wing Free Democrats. For months the Free Democrats have been muttering that Der Alte's foreign policy is "too rigidly" tied to the West. They saw their chance when Adenauer fell ill, and his iron hold on affairs loosened.

They chose to strike against him not in the federal Bundestag, where they are outnumbered 251 to 48 by Adenauer's Christian Democrats. Instead they organized a revolt in the provincial legislature of North Rhine-Westphalia, which contains the rich Ruhr. Free Democrats made a deal with the opposition Social Democrats, with whom they otherwise had nothing in common, to overthrow able Christian Democrat Karl Arnold, the Minister Pres ident (governor) of North Rhine-Westphalia. They had nothing but admiration for Arnold and said so; they were simply out to get at Konrad Adenauer in Bonn. By a vote of 102-96, they succeeded and elected a Socialist the new Minis ter President.

In Bonn the old Chancellor glowered. His local defeat had national repercussions: seats in the federal upper house are chosen by the local governments. He was thus deprived of North Rhine-Westphalia's five votes there, and lost his two-thirds majority in the Bundesrat. Adenauer needs the two-thirds majority to put through constitutional changes permitting German rearmament.

Displaying his old power once again, Der Alte moved swiftly. After long negotiations, the Socialists agreed to vote for his constitutional amendments, so he had his two-thirds majority anyway. And he swung on the four Free Democratic members of his Cabinet, including Vice Chancellor Franz Blacher: if they wished to remain in the Cabinet, they would have to resign from the party and bring other Deputies along with them. Bluecher is a devoted believer in Germany's partnership in the West, has no use for Free Democratic Leader Thomas Dehler's talk of bargaining with Russia for German unity. The struggle was short and sharp. At week's end, the Free Democratic Party split with a grinding crash of rhetoric and recrimination. Dehler and his remaining 33 Deputies surlily went into opposition. The 14 other ex-Free Democrats announced they would form a new German People's Party loyal to Adenauer. The old man had done better than anyone expected, even though ahead lay new dangers of fragmentation in his coalition.

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