The Old Man Steps Aside

My wish is that when mankind looks beyond the clouds and dust of our times, it can be said of me that I have done my duty.

--Konrad Adenauer

Konrad Adenauer is a man used to making his own lonely decisions. With single-minded discipline and skill, he has done more than anyone else to raise his country from ruin and disgrace to riches and repute in ten short years. And it was his command decisions which committed West Germany firmly to Western Europe and the Atlantic Alliance.

Behind the flinty monolith of his public image stands a suspicious and emotional man, whose impulsiveness is generally held in check. Last week, at 83, under the duress of his days and years, der Alte came to his loneliest decision. Suddenly and dramatically, the greatest German Chancellor since Bismarck signified his readiness to give up his powerful office after ten years, for the more honorific post of President. It was his own decision, and yet the emotional overtones of his act showed that he was reluctantly anticipating a painful reality.

Only seven weeks ago Adenauer had insisted that he intended to stand a fourth time for Chancellor in the 1961 elections. His own candidate for President was his Vice Chancellor, Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard, the rotund, popular engineer of the German economic miracle. But for once, the icy Adenauer eye failed to transfix his party's politicos. Rebellious Bundestag backbenchers protested that to make Erhard President would be to deprive the Christian Democratic Party of "our best vote-getter in 1961," and Erhard himself declined the offer (TIME, March 16). A successful defiance of Adenauer was something new.

Fighting & Fears. All sorts of influences were now at work on the old man. His son Paul, a Roman Catholic priest, dared advise him that he must not try to stay in the front line too long. His old Cologne friend, Banker Robert Pferdmenges, gently explained how in big business a corporation president, by becoming board chairman, sloughs off the daily burden while overseeing the continuity of policy. Adenauer himself badly wanted a strong presidential candidate to head off the "catastrophic" possibility that a Socialist (the popular Carlo Schmid) might win the office. And Adenauer was also swayed by fears that his allies might be preparing to undercut Germany's position in negotiations with Russia; he felt deep dismay over John Foster Dulles' illness and the new American faces he must deal with; he felt pain at De Gaulle's public acceptance of the Oder-Neisse line as the German frontier on the east. His suspicions of the British burst out in the open before the week was out.

Events swept to a climax in a single day. Ostensibly to bid goodbye on the eve of a four-week Italian vacation, Adenauer went to see outgoing President Theodor Heuss, 75, who has served the constitutional limit of two five-year terms. For two hours the two elders talked about the role of the presidency. That night at home, Adenauer talked heart to heart with his son Paul until midnight. Next morning he complained that he had hardly slept--but he had made his decision.

Taking a Hint. Most of the 62 Christian Democrats who went to Bonn's Palais Schaumburg that cold and rainy morning expected a routine session with the Chancellor. Clutching a copy of the federal republic's Basic Law, Adenauer lectured, instead, for 45 minutes on the legal and moral position of the presidential office. Some of the politicians got Adenauer's hint and asked the Chancellor directly.

The answer: yes, der Alte would consider the presidency himself. Other deputies were stunned. Said Mrs. Helene Weber, an old Adenauer friend: "Nonsense. I think I'm going to faint." But when the meeting resumed, the 62 delegates unanimously nominated Adenauer, and then one by one walked up to shake his hand.

"Not by One lota." Within 24 hours, the sensational news had swept across Germany. The old Chancellor, before boarding a special railway car for Italy, recorded a bitter little speech to his countrymen. It contained an odd digression. Lashing out at British "wire-pullers" almost as if the British forced him to the step, he conceded that the decision had been made "quickly--but I must say in retrospect that it was well considered and correct. My decision is intended to ensure the continuity of our policy for years to come. The position, task and work of the federal President is underestimated; it is much greater than generally believed. I would like to say that the attitude of the federal government in foreign policy questions will not change by one iota during the present period of conferences, or during the coming few years."

From an Eminence. Moscow's Pravda lost no time in proclaiming the Chancellor's action "involuntary," and the combination of abruptness, peevishness and pressure lent some color to the interpretation. Yet after the first public outcry that the West had lost one of its stoutest men at an awkward moment. Adenauer's decision began to appear a wise recognition that he was no longer indispensable. West Germany was no longer just one indomitable man but a strong and prosperous nation of 52 million people.

"Don't you think I'm going to retire to the old folks' home." Adenauer cautioned his friends. Heuss's term as President does not end till Sept. 15. Adenauer obviously intends to have a big say in choosing and counseling the next Chancellor (who will be elected by the Bundestag). He hopes to follow the example of his friend De Gaulle in influencing events from an eminence. Perhaps he will be less influential than he foresees. Bundestag President Eugen Gerstenmaier has already warned that "there must be no twisting of the constitution on any account," and others argue that real power inevitably remains in the Chancellor's control of party patronage.

The Successors. Since the party's unwritten rule requires that the two top offices may not be held by men of the same faith, Catholic Konrad Adenauer's successor will presumably be a Protestant. The three leading candidates: Vice Chancellor Erhard, 62; Gerstenmaier, 52; and Finance Minister Franz Etzel, 56. Of the three, Etzel, a colorless Ruhr corporation lawyer would be most apt to follow Adenauer's tutelage in foreign affairs unquestioningly. Because Gerstenmaier is ready to trade away Germany's NATO membership if it will buy reunification from the Russians, he is less likely to get the nomination. Erhard has never concealed that in his free-trader's eyes, the Adenauer-sponsored six-nation Common Market is too limited, and last week he told an audience of Ruhr industrialists that more "open-mindedness and flexibility" would be useful in conducting foreign policy. The test of Adenauer's present power may well be whether he is obliged to accept Erhard as Chancellor. At the moment, Erhard is the clear favorite.

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