Up the Engineer

"Pressure groups, pressure groups--I am being strangled by pressure groups!" grumbled Konrad Adenauer, pacing up and down his Palais Schaumburg study. "I would rather fight three elections than form one Cabinet."

Even when he went to the Bundestag to be sworn in for his third term as Chancellor, der Alte did not have his Cabinet list ready. The problem was pfennig-pinching Fritz Schaeffer. As Minister of Finance in the old Cabinet, Schaeffer had consistently resisted the plans of Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard to ease taxes to produce more investment capital; he had also refused to release budget money for rearmament.

Adenauer's first gambit was to offer Schaeffer a new Ministry of Economic Property, which would administer government-owned or controlled enterprises (Volkswagen, 50% of the nation's iron ore. 90% of its lignite). He sweetened the pill by asking if Schaeffer would also like to be Vice Chancellor. Protestants within Adenauer's Christian Democratic Party promptly squawked that to replace Protestant Vice Chancellor Franz Bluecher with Roman Catholic Schaffer would wreck the Cabinet balance between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Schaeffer agreed to accept only if he was also given control of the federal debt.

Brushing off congratulations at the swearing-in ceremonies with "Yes, but this does not end my troubles," Adenauer hurried back to his study to write Schaeffer that his proposal was "unsatisfactory" and that it was no longer possible to offer him the vice-chancellorship. Schaeffer's Bavarian party followers rushed to Adenauer to suggest that Schaeffer could be mollified if he was offered the Justice Ministry. Within minutes, Adenauer scratched off his first choice as Justice Minister, put down Schaeffer's name instead. "Oh, how they make me suffer," he sighed.

At week's end Adenauer was putting the finishing touches on his new lineup. Now listed for Schaeffer's place as Vice Chancellor was Ludwig Erhard, who would not only keep his post as Economics Minister, but also take over the, chairmanship of the Cabinet's Economic Committee. Erhard, as engineer of Germany's postwar prosperity, was clearly being rewarded for providing Adenauer with his best election issue. The coincidental fact that he is Protestant would also restore the Catholic-Protestant balance in the government. As the new Finance Minister, Adenauer named Franz Etzel, hitherto vice chairman of the European Coal and Steel Authority at Luxembourg, who is expected to work with Erhard far more cooperatively than Schaeffer ever did.

Unless Adenauer changed his mind at the eleventh hour, Erhard had achieved his long-cherished ambition to wield overall direction of the West German economy. Should he also land the vice-chancellorship, Erhard would emerge as the top Cabinet officer, increasing his ranking as possible successor to der Alte himself.

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