The Time of the Sphinx

Goodbye, old chief, goodbye, Everything in life passes on. The best time of your life Will now be in your memories.

With only a month to go before Konrad Adenauer steps down as Chancellor, Goodbye, Old Chief, sung to twanging guitars and the lowing of lonesome steer, has become one of West Germany's top jukebox hits. As for the Old Chief, he seemed unusually mellow, even resigned to retirement after 14 years in office. Last week Adenauer, 87, journeyed to Rome in a nostalgic mood to say his goodbyes to President Segni and Pope Paul VI, who presented him with the Vatican's highest decoration, the jeweled chain of the Supreme Order of Christ, which had not been given to a German statesman since Bismarck. Then der Alte headed for Paris and an emotion-fraught farewell visit with Charles de Gaulle, his enthusiastic collaborator in this year's Franco-German treaty of friendship.

Fewer Stogies. In West Germany, where the round of ceremonies honoring Adenauer promises to reach Wagnerian proportions, his successor-designate, Vice Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, stayed discreetly out of the limelight.

Nonetheless, since his return in late August from his vacation cottage beside Bavaria's Tegernsee, der Dicke (the Fat One) has been training for office by dieting, cutting down on cigars (he still chews on 20 a day, but lights up less often), going early to bed, and seeing a steady stream of politicians of all parties at his Ministry of Economics office. More eager to hear their views than to make controversial pronouncements of his own, Ludwig Erhard seldom ventured more than a grunted "Ah, yes, Herr Minister, so I hear. Please tell me more."

Erhard is anxious to make as few Cabinet changes as possible when he takes office on Oct. 16. He plans to install Erich Mende, leader of the coalition Free Democratic Party, as Vice Chancellor and Science Minister.

The changeover from Adenauer, a staunch Roman Catholic, to Erhard, a Protestant, will upset West Germany's Konfessionsarithmetik, the juggling of top jobs between faiths. Since Protestants will probably hold most major Cabinet posts, Erhard is under pressure to appoint Catholics to several powerful positions. For Minister of Economics, the job in which he himself won national acclaim as Wirtschaftswunderonkel (Uncle Boom), Erhard wants his longtime No. 2 man, able Ludger Westrick, despite demands from the party that the coveted post should go to a politician rather than a civil servant.

Policies of Motion. Erhard, whose past humiliations at the hands of Adenauer earned him the scornful nickname Rubber Lion, was being so distant with the press, and was handling importunate visitors with such quiet reserve that he was being called a new name: the Sphinx of Tegernsee. He was even able to grit his teeth and remain silent when Konrad Adenauer outlined for top officials a view of Europe's future that was almost identical with Charles de Gualle's vision of a French-led association of states.

However, Foreign Minister Gerhard Schroeder declared flatly that the new government would not risk straining its ties with the U.S., and later flew to Washington to reaffirm Germany's cautious support for "policies of motion" to ease East-West tensions, to which De Gaulle and Adenauer are both opposed.

In thus flouting the once-formidable authority of der Alte--with Erhard's support--Gerhard Schroeder was echoing yet another current song hit in West Germany:

Let the Fat One try it, too,

Let him show what he can do.

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