Defeat for Adenauer

Borrowing the Roman cardinal's phrase, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer grinningly announced to the press last week, "Habemus Papam," with the calm aplomb of an old pro accustomed to having his way. But the man he had designated as new pope--or rather as his party's candidate for President of Germany--was getting less sure by the hour that he wanted the job. In the Black Forest resort where he was taking the health cure (TIME, March 9), Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard was confronted by laundry hampers full of mail. Thousands of letters and telegrams from small businessmen, farmers and labor leaders urged Erhard to resist all attempts to kick him upstairs.

Stock-market shares had fallen 4 to 10 points on the news that the architect of Germany's economic miracle, and his party's most effective campaigner after Adenauer, might be lost in a largely honorific five-year job. Of the 271 Christian Democrats in Parliament, more than 120 signed petitions urging Erhard to stay at the Economics Ministry, and 46 of the dissenters warned that they would vote against Erhard at the July 1 secret ballot, ensuring his defeat for President.

At that point Erhard called up Adenauer and refused the nomination. Out of "duty and conscience," he said, he could better serve Germany "in the field of active politics."

Defeated, Adenauer vainly tried to call off the party meeting scheduled for that afternoon. The party caucus met behind closed doors. Adenauer first wanted President Theodor Heuss's term extended, but was told the idea was unfeasible. For 4 1/2 hours the bickering went on, made more short-tempered by Adenauer's request that no one smoke in his presence. Through the doors could be heard the angry outcries of Erhard's rival, Interior Minister Gerhard Schroder, who had wanted him out of the way. In the end a 40-man committee was chosen to find a new presidential candidate, who would inevitably be of less stature than Erhard.

It was a stinging defeat for Adenauer, the worst he had received in ten years of strong-willed party rule. West Germany had at last found a crown prince to succeed Adenauer when the day comes. Ludwig Erhard emerged unquestionably as the most likely Christian-Democratic candidate for the chancellery in 1961 if Adenauer himself at 85 does not want it, and possibly even if he does.

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