Operetta Finale

Kohl settles the Kiessling case

Ever since West German Defense Minister Manfred Woerner announced last month that General Guenter Kiessling, 58, had been dismissed from the Bundeswehr because of charges of homosexual activity, the case against the four-star general had been crumbling away like stale cake. Initially, Woerner grandly asserted that Kiessling had been mixing with "criminal elements" at seedy gay bars in Cologne for more than a decade and that this had left him open to blackmail. Kiessling, a bachelor, stoutly denied that he was homosexual or that he had ever visited the bars in question. Gradually, government investigators began to believe him.

First Cologne police found a civilian who closely resembled the general and who had often been seen at gay bars.

Then Woerner admitted that his decision to retire Kiessling had been influenced by "personal differences" between Kiessling, a Deputy Commander of NATO, and the organization's Supreme Commander, U.S. General Bernard Rogers. Desperate to bolster his case, Woerner invited to Bonn a Swiss homosexual actor who claimed to have evidence of misconduct by Kiessling. The "evidence" was unpersuasive. Moreover, the Defense Minister's methods of supporting his accusations seemed both unsavory and absurd. There were rumors that he would have to resign.

By that time, the matter had become a farce to the public and a serious and dangerous embarrassment to Chancellor Helmut Kohl. He was already beset by an array of domestic political problems concerning; West German relations with the Soviet Union, the continuing deployment of U.S. missiles and the revival of his country's sputtering economy. He did not need the Kiessling-Woerner controversy, which one politician described as "worse than an operetta." Returning from an eight-day trip to the Middle East last week, Kohl sought to bring down the curtain by announcing that Woerner would stay on as Defense Minister and that Kiessling would be returned to active duty. In a letter of apology to the general, Woerner wrote, "There is no longer any reason to assume that you constituted a security risk."

Like most of his countrymen, Kohl was relieved to have the matter settled, though his prestige had suffered some what from his Defense Minister's ineptitude. As for Kiessling, he declared, "My honor has been restored for all to see." He added, however, that he did not have the "inward and outward strength" to resume his NATO post and instead would retire from the army next month.