The Lost Weekend

When the millionth Volkswagen beetled off a West German assembly line this month, Volkswagen workers were treated to 40,000 liters of beer, a cancan act from Paris and a speech frowning on the 40-hour week. "Work is much more satisfying than idleness," said Volkswagen President Heinz Nordhoff (TIME, Feb. 15, 1954). "It is not without good reason that the cycle of six working days and one Sunday has been in existence for thousands of years. No doubt, a Saturday off would be a nice gift to many but a curse to others. Most people live only to escape themselves. For them, another weekday without work would only increase the emptiness and disconsolateness caused by idling away spare time."

Most West German workers, who lost more than weekends during World War II, have been inclined until recently to agree with Nordhoff. "They didn't want leisure; they wanted money to recoup their losses," explained an official of D.G.B., West Germany's 6,000,000-member Trade Union Federation.

In recent months, however, as German economic recovery has zoomed, labor's drive to cut the work week (from an average 48.7 hr.) has gathered momentum. Last week West German miners voted to strike, if necessary, for an eventual 40-hour week. Other key unions, e.g., steel and ironworkers, were expected to follow suit. Within five years, said D.G. Boss Walter Freitag, he hopes to convince employers throughout West Germany that weekends are wonderful indeed.

By that time, Saturday Toiler Nordhoff may have some new evidence on which to base his own view. Last week Volkswagen announced that it has bought an assembly plant at New Brunswick, N.J., where Studebaker has turned out J47 turbojet engines. There, Volkswagen will assemble its rear-engine, four-cylinder cars for the U.S. market, where it already has 40% of all foreign-car sales (2,500 a month). In Jersey, Heinz Nordhoff is not likely to find many workers troubled by the emptiness and disconsolateness of a two-day weekend.

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