Farewell to Fasching?

It was to have been Munich's gaudiest, bawdiest Fasching ever. In preparation for the pre-Lenten bacchanal that traditionally enlivens the gray Bavarian midwinter, scores of halls had been decorated with tinfoil, blinking lights, papier-mache figures of fun, and corners intentionally left dark. No fewer than seven carnival princes and princesses had been named, complete with courts and shapely girl guards. All was ready for Milnchner to abandon themselves, as they always had, to a month of drinking, swiving--judges do not consider adultery grounds for divorce during Fasching--and foolery unequaled anywhere else in Europe.

This year, though, the party has been a flop. The once glittering costume balls have paled in half-empty halls, and the extravagant costumes--and near nudity--of other years have given way to cliches of pirates, gypsies and cowboys. Munich's hotel and restaurant association estimates that overall attendance is down by a third.

Toy Soldiers. Men complain that the girls have never been so unapproachable. Girls complain that the men do not approach. "Matters have got so bad that you kind of miss being pinched," complained a voluptuous blonde in pink veils last week. Madeleine Schmidbauer, 22, a winsome lieutenant in the guard of one of Munich's carnival princes for the past three years, agreed: "Formerly, when we came down the ramp, marching in step, we prided ourselves on being toy soldiers everyone wanted to play with. Now people look at us with the same disdain as they look at the Bundeswehr."

Why? As the Fasching season neared its end on Ash Wednesday this week, there were myriad theories. People variously and contradictorily blamed high prices, fear of a recession, prosperity--" skiing in the Alps and sunbathing in Tenerife is more -fun" --or the mildest winter in memory, central heating, and the popularity of dieting. Marlene Kriiger, probably West Germany's best-known astrologer, suggests that Fasching's decline was caused by "the interaction of Uranus with the Jupiter-Pluto square in the Aquarian age." Dr. Emil Vierlinger, a locally famed master of Fasching ceremonies, suggested that the generation gap might be the reason: "Today's young people celebrate Fasching all year long. Any mod store sells more .fantastic clothing, and they can dance more wildly and to louder music in any discotheque."

Lost Uplift. None of the theories, however, explain why this year's un-festive gloom clings only to Munich and other Bavarian cities. In the Rhineland, the freewheeling Karneval was going strong last week, as noisy and popular as ever. Tickets to Sitzungen (cabaret entertainments) were sold out; dances were crowded, and in normally somnolent Bonn the federal government and city administration started closing down last week as celebrating civil servants took to the streets. Seeking to explain the difference, some Germans theorized that wine-drinking Rhinelanders are more lighthearted than stolid, beer-drinking Bavarians. Mimchner who did not accept that theory could take comfort from another explanation: that their city is more sophisticated than the industrial centers along the Rhine.

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