The Rubber Lion Strikes Again

People are always underrating Ludwig Erhard. Many were sure that he was not enough of a politician to carry his Christian Democratic Union to victory in last month's elections. When Erhard won overwhelmingly, doubters predicted humiliating defeat for him in the intricate task of forming a new Cabinet. The Gummiloewe (Rubber Lion) would surely knuckle under to Bonn's wily professional politicians in the scramble for ministerial seats.

Erhard's amiable way of meeting the challenge was to let the pros blow off steam. Postponing decisions until the week before the Bundestag convened on Oct. 20 to re-elect him Chancellor, he took off for a holiday by the Tegernsee, leaving stage center in Bonn to former Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss, who bosses the 49-man Bavarian branch of the C.D.U. known as the Christian Social Union. Strauss began announcing to reporters and anyone else who would listen, that Erhard must dump Foreign Minister Gerhard Schroeder, a well-known "Atlanticist" who believes that Germany's best friend is the U.S. (Strauss is inclined to think it's De Gaulle). Strauss also called for removal of Erich Mende, chief of the Free Democrats and a longtime Strauss-hater, from his coalition post as Minister for All-German Affairs.

Strauss got an assist from a fellow Gaullist, that wily old (89) wheeler-dealer ex-Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Adenauer proclaimed that President Heinrich Luebke, his great admirer, had every constitutional right to veto Erhard's Cabinet appointments. Schroeder fought back in interviews by arguing that his views were, after all, the same as Erhard's. His foes paid small heed. Snapped der Alte: "You have proved totally incompetent. Germany's position in the world has sunk to a new low, and you are to blame."

Nerve Test. Strauss & Co.'s most outrageous ploy was to threaten Erhard that Strauss might take his Bavarians out of the C.D.U. altogether, the implication being that he might then form a majority with the opposition Social Democrats. "They have their nerve," growled Erhard to an aide. In fact, he knew, they didn't have that much nerve, and when the time was right, he put them to the test. At a series of caucuses ending last week in the ornate Palais Schaumburg, Erhard's official residence, the Chancellor informed his adversaries that Schroeder would stay--though the government was more than willing to improve relations with France, if De Gaulle would only cooperate. Erhard also pointed out that unless Mende got his beloved All-German Affairs Ministry back, the Free Democrat coalition partners wouldn't support the government.

In the end, the boisterous Bavarians accepted defeat, which was softened a bit by their getting five seats in the 22-man Cabinet instead of the previous four. Strauss was offered the Interior Ministry, but, presumably because he considered it a demotion from his former job at Defense, he turned it down. Konrad Adenauer was offered nothing; to many a West German, his role in the process merely further tarnished a grand old image that would have retained its high gloss had he only retired some years ago--say, at 85.

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