End of an Age

Oaken-hearted Konrad Adenauer, who has won a lot of political victories by force of character and the iron logic of his policies, came through again last week, but not without difficulties. His normally ashen face lightly tanned after a long Swiss vacation, he took autocratic command of his Christian Democratic Union's annual conference at Stuttgart and sought to silence all talk of picking his successor or changing his policies.

"What Alternatives?" When the time came to choose party officers, the old (80) Chancellor acted as both chairman and nominating committee. He proposed his slate, ignored all hands raised against it, and announced amid gasps: "As nearly as I can see, it's unanimous." When the time came to lay down doctrine, Adenauer announced that the party would fight the 1957 elections on the same reunification plank as in 1953: "We hold fast to the policy of integration of Europe and the Atlantic community." It was folly to think that Germany could act unilaterally without antagonizing its friends: "Ladies and gentlemen, believe me, we are not at all liked in the world yet."

Turning on those members who think he should climb down and ask Moscow's price for German unity, he growled: "After the results of the London negotiations there can no longer be any man in Germany who thinks the time has come to begin something with the Russians." Though many delegates felt that the old man's foreign policy had not borne fruit, only one dared openly to question its inflexibility. When Berlin Deputy Ferdinand Friedensburg suggested in an almost painfully respectful little speech that perhaps Germany should have alternative policies on reunification, the Chancellor leaped to the rostrum with the agility of a man of 50. He shook a stubby finger at Friedensburg and roared: "What alternatives?"

The Old Soft Shoe. On foreign policy der Alte was plainly on the defensive. With next year's elections in mind, the Christian Democrats were dreaming up some vote-getting domestic measures in stead. Usually, at this season of the year, Finance Minister Fritz Schaeffer plays his annual spring masquerade as the national miser. He puts on his shawl and oldest pair of shoes, bums a cigarette from his chauffeur and totters onstage to wail that the country is bound for the poorhouse unless he gets a few billions more to balance his budget. This year Schaeffer, who bows to no man as a politician, has a tounded his audience by capering out and saying he is ready to cut taxes by $300 million, even after promising a cool billion for new farm subsidies. And how will he raise it? It's an open secret in Bonn that he will just get the Chancellor to let him use the greater part of the $2.1 billion earmarked for defense spending this year. The new army is so far behind schedule, all agree, that it could not spend the money anyway.

The New Allies. Such surefire schemes may well see the Christian Democrats safely through the 1957 elections. But the old political scene is fast changing. Adenauer once had the most impressive and solid parliamentary majority in Western Europe (334 votes out of 487), but it has been whittled down to 281 votes, and many who vote for him are restive.

Resentment inside his own party against the old man's dictatorial rule finally exploded on the convention's last days. By a vote of 239 to 227, rank-and-filers overrode the Chancellor's objections and changed the rules to add two deputy chairmen to the two he had picked. Their proclaimed purpose was to elect Karl Arnold, left-wing former chief of the North Rhine-Westphalian government, who fell out with Adenauer over Arnold's insistence on working with the Socialists. Having rebuffed Adenauer, the 1,100 delegates sought to soften the blow of his first party defeat by giving him a rousing ovation and re-electing him party chairman.

While Adenauer's grip on his own party is slipping, the opposition parties are showing signs of vigor. The Socialists have thrown away much of their old Marxist trappings and are displaying themselves to the middle-class voter as a respectable left-of-center party. Thomas Dehler's Free Democrats defied Adenauer and split away from his coalition last winter on the issue of making a direct approach to Moscow (argued Dehler: "If you want to buy a cow you talk to the owner"). The Free Democrats have been teaming up with the Socialists in hopes of toppling several pro-Adenauer local governments. If the two hang together, talking up foreign-policy criticisms and airing popular gripes against Chancellor Adenauer's repeated demands for 18-month conscription, they will make a formidable alliance in the 1957 elections.

The big Ruhr industrialists, who keep close watch on political trends, think that the Adenauer government is already crumbling and have begun to hedge their bets. One magnate thinks that Adenauer's party will be lucky to get 50% of Ruhr campaign contributions next time. Ruhr money is already flowing to the Free Democrats, and powerful industrialists have opened talks with Wilhelm Mellies, Socialist vice chairman, to find out what attitude the party may take next year toward heavy industry and its interests.

Germans have long said that political change in their country would come, but only "after Adenauer." The big news from Germany is that while the Chancellor still presides over his party and country, he is less and less able to dominate them. Though Chancellor Konrad Adenauer still lives, the Age of Adenauer is coming to an end. What will take its place is already struggling to take shape.

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