Obituaries Were Premature

Over morning coffee, Bonn celebrated the first day P.A.--Post-Adenauer. Almost in disbelief, politicians of all parties concluded that West Germany's fourth postwar election had finally scuttled the Old Chancellor. Angrily, Konrad Adenauer vented his rage on campaign officials, the Socialists, the U.S. (for not allowing him to accompany Lyndon Johnson to Berlin, which would have been great campaign publicity). When he announced a press conference for noon, friends and foes alike guessed that der Alte was about to step down. Instead, the Old Fox left no doubt that in West Germany it was still Anno Adenauer.

Back to Success. Adenauer's Christian Democrats had lost 27 of their 270 seats in the Bundestag, well short of the absolute majority the Chancellor had vowed to retain. With Berlin's spirited Mayor Willy Brandt as their candidate, the Socialists only topped their 1957 vote by a meager 4.5%, wound up with 190 seats. The election's sole victors turned out to be Erich Mende's Free Democrats (see following story). Throughout Adenauer's slugging match with Brandt, the Free Democrats had quietly recruited fugitives from both major parties, wound up with nearly double their 1957 vote and the prize of 66 Bundestag seats (up 25).

But at his press conference, the bright-eyed, firm-lipped, 85-year-old titan blandly assured reporters that his party had "sound wood and good roots" (a judgment that applies equally to Adenauer, who acts a young 65). The Christian Democrats, he deadpanned, had merely "slipped back to our success of 1953," when they also had exactly 243 seats. Said he: "When one party has been leading the country for twelve years, naturally it could not fulfill all wishes. Thus a certain dissatisfaction arises."

On to Coalition. Dissatisfactions go deeper than der Alte cared to admit. Some critics feel that so long a reign as his may stifle their young democracy. The Socialists captured a high percentage of the country's first-time voters, while the Free Democrats winkled off a sizable number of the middle-class urban voters who admire Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard as the engineer of prosperity and vehemently resent Adenauer's underhand attempts to keep their hero in the shadows. Said a party official: "Plenty of our voters felt that in voting for us they were voting against Adenauer for Erhard."

In view of these discontents and the Christian Democrats' minority position in the Bundestag, politicians continued to argue that Adenauer ought to step down to make way for a younger man--and federal President Heinrich Luebke has warned that he will not inaugurate the Chancellor if he tries to rule with a minority government. Moving in for what he hoped would be the kill, wily Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss took to TV to announce that his own 50-man Bavarian wing of the party--which fared respectably at the polls--had decided that der Alte should be succeeded by Erhard. Strauss's critics say that he hopes Erhard will serve briefly as transitional Chancellor, perform badly in foreign affairs, and thus clear the way for Strauss himself.

But Adenauer flatly refused to budge for Erhard, instead offered to form a coalition with Mende's Free Democrats. They in turn played hard to get, insisted that they would cooperate only if Adenauer resigned. Craftily, the Chancellor then turned around and invited the opposition Socialists to join him for "preliminary talks." As he intended, Mende's men took fright, quickly made clear that their refusal, as one put it, was "not quite a refusal." For all his antagonism to Adenauer, explained an aide, Erich Mende wanted to avoid the "odium of regicide."

Demonstrating his own flexibility, Adenauer allowed that whatever came of his coalition plans, he really would resign as soon as the Berlin crisis passes. That, as far as anyone could know, might be quite a while.

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