Forget Saving the World--Save Our Jobs

By ANDREW PURVIS

It's just after noon at Cafe 103, one of the trendier spots in a trendy neighborhood, and young Berliners are indulging in three of their favorite vices: coffee, cigarettes and politics. A generation ago, smoke-filled establishments like these were hotbeds of debate about environmental catastrophes and the risk of nuclear war. But the patrons' obsessions have grown slightly more mundane. "The tax system here is driving us all to hell," says Max Wirtz, 37, the owner of an event-management agency. "Everything is too regulated." His friend Matthias, 37, nods in agreement and says what attracted him to the conservative Christian Democratic Party was a radical idea: a flat tax. "I wasn't thinking of voting for them up to that point," he says. "But that tax idea was cool!"

The fact that an issue like tax reform generates so much excitement says a lot about the zeitgeist in Germany today--and helps explain why the government of Gerhard Schroeder was voted out last month after seven years in power. Following weeks of wrangling, the country's major parties agreed last week to form a coalition government headed by Angela Merkel, 51, who stands to become the first female Chancellor in German history. The victory of Merkel and her Christian Democratic Party marks a generational shift in German politics. Young voters who once were worried about social issues say they are far more concerned about reviving Germany's stagnant economy. As a result, German leaders like Schroeder and his Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who came of age during the social tumult of the 1960s, are giving way to a younger, more conservative crowd. Says Michael Naumann, a former Cabinet minister under Schroeder: "The torch is being passed."

Many Germans welcome the change. The 1960s and '70s were a particularly intense time in Germany as young people threw off the social straitjacket of the 1950s and the legacy of Nazism. Fischer, who among other assorted jobs worked as a taxi driver, brought some of that contrarian spirit into German political life, famously clashing with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the eve of the Iraq war. Schroeder was not a radical but shared his cohort's progressive outlook and freewheeling lifestyle. (Schroeder and Fischer have eight marriages between them.) "They all wore suits and ties to the office," says Walter Lindner, a Fischer aide. But "in their heads they saw themselves as from the counterculture."

Germans credit the outgoing government with making the country a more tolerant, eco-friendly place. But with unemployment running at a post--World War II high of 11.2%, young Germans are more interested in finding jobs than saving the world. Birgit Gugath, 25, a political science student in Berlin, voted for the Green Party and Schroeder's Social Democrats in 2002 but switched to Merkel this year. "All those big ideas just aren't as important anymore," she says. "We have to take care of ourselves." When the parents of today's twentysomethings entered the work force, "the higher the degree you got, the better your job would be, but that's not the case today," says Jan Bottcher, 27, a law student at Berlin's Free University. "We live with a lot more insecurity." That professional uncertainty has caused young Germans to seek stability in their personal lives. In a recent poll by the Forsa agency in Berlin, 87% of young people ages 18 to 30 said they thought marriage was a good thing, and 80% said they believe they will find their "one true love."

The new government reflects the turn toward sobriety. "The home and the family are very important to us," says Dieter Althaus, governor of the state of Thuringia and a Merkel confidante. Merkel will still need the support of the old left to pass her reforms, but it's a safe bet that the style of German governance will change. "I was one of the last live rock 'n' rollers," Fischer said after last month's vote. Germans are ready for a different song.

With reporting by William Boston / Berlin, Ursula Sautter / Bonn