Hanging On

Back in Bonn after a week of parades and prayers that sealed a new era of French-German friendship, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer called a special press conference to deliver a rambling, emotional account of his visit to Charles de Gaulle and of the "eternal" bonds of understanding that now link Europe's once deadly enemies. Coolly he brushed aside impatient newsmen who were more interested in a stunning domestic development: a sharp regional election upset last week of his Christian Democratic Union in North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany's richest, most populous state, comprising one-third of the whole West German electorate. Last September the C.D.U. lost its absolute majority in the federal Bundestag, was forced to rule by entering into an uneasy coalition with the small Free Democratic Party. Now, in its second major political test in ten months, the C.D.U. slipped again.

Shaky Coalition. North Rhine-Westphalia's voters--Ruhr factory workers, middle-class merchants and farmers--were to choose new deputies for the Landtag (state legislature). The election ended the C.D.U.'s control of the 200-seat legislature, reduced the party's seats from 104 to 96. The Free Democrats, who had hopes of boosting their influence, instead lost a seat for a new total of 14. The only gainers were the ideologically refurbished Socialists, who have attracted increasing support since they dropped Marxist neutralist slogans in favor of bourgeois appeals for prosperity, moderate reform and NATO. The S.P.D. last week boosted its percentage of the total vote from 39% to more than 43% (the first time since the war that it has topped the 40% mark), gained nine new places in the legislature for a total of 90.

Main reason for the Christian Democratic setback is the refusal of the aged (86) Chancellor to step down (he has agreed to do so some time before the end of next year) and arrange for his successor, most likely Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard. When this was pointed out to him last week, der Alte did not even deign to reply. He only smiled.

Stubborn Determination. Adenauer remains in remarkable health. He works from 12 to 15 hours a day, has the clear eyes and steady hand that many a younger man has lost. During a recent two-hour conversation with a U.S. visitor, Adenauer spoke with machine-gun speed and great animation, alertly stopped the interpreter when he glossed a point by correcting him in both German and English.

But more and more of Adenauer's fellow Christian Democrats feel that his rigid concentration on foreign policy matters is causing him to lose touch with domestic political events. In the twilight of his career, Adenauer is sure that his place in history will be determined not by domestic political events but by his role in building a new Europe and a new Germany. He is obsessed by the fear that the fruits of his diplomacy--notably, a united French-German front against Communism--will be spoiled by his successors.

Such was the fate in the 18th century of Frederick the Great, who led Prussia to its peak as a great European power but whose successors could not stop Napoleon; such also was the fate in the 19th century of Bismarck, whose political genius created modern Germany and helped give Europe more than 40 years of peace--both destroyed, after his death, by World War 1. Adenauer is painfully aware of these parallels in German history, and is determined to delay his departure as long as possible, despite his domestic critics.

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