The Meistersinger Minister

It was about as likely as Henry Kissinger's warbling On Top of Old Smoky with choral accompaniment by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. Nonetheless, for the fourth week in a row, Walter Scheel, West Germany's Foreign Minister and the leading contender for the presidency in May's elections, was on top of Europe's hit parade, with a song so old and square it sounded refreshingly different to a generation weaned on rock 'n' roll. Within little more than a month, a single of Scheel singing a square folk song called Hoch auf dem gelben Wagen (High Up on the Yellow Wagon) has sold 100,000 copies, making it the bestselling record by a German in recent years. SCHEEL SANG headlined the tabloid Bild. ALL GERMANY IS RAVING.

The record was the brainstorm of Dirk Tillen, a Duesseldorf producer who knew that Scheel, 54, was not only a member of the Duesseldorf Men's Glee Club but an irrepressible baritone who would even toss off a ditty or two at birthday parties for Chancellor Willy Brandt. The curiosity factor alone, Tillen reasoned, would sell discs. An added inducement was the promise that profits would go mainly to one of the Foreign Minister's favorite charities --handicapped children. Scheel immediately jumped at the idea, brushing aside complaints from top aides that cutting a record was beneath his dignity.One reason was that he wanted to make German folk songs popular again. "This has to go wrong," warned one when his boss, backed up by an orchestra and the Duesseldorf choir, boomed out the joys of galloping through the countryside on a jolly old yellow wagon.

With such advice, the Beatles would have stayed in Liverpool--and Walter Scheel in the Foreign Ministry. The German press has acclaimed him for his refreshing informality, while European fans beknighted him the "Meistersinger Minister." Who knows? If Scheel could get together with West Europe's other leaders, even the factions in the Common Market might stay in tune. Scheel could sing, Edward Heath could pound the piano, and Georges Pompidou might even learn to tootle an obbligato on the French horn.

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