GERMANY: As Far Right ...

In one of the biggest turnouts of voters since the rise of Hitler, Germans in Bavaria and Hesse (U.S. zone) last week went to the polls to elect local officials. Principal results: 1) the Communists, who had made the most active campaign, lost even more ground, getting only 2.8% of the Bavarian total, and 7.9% in Hesse; 2) the center parties (Social Democrats, Christian Democrats) lost heavily to the rightists. Two explanations were offered. In Frankfurt, Metalworker Gustav Schmidt explained: "The city is full of people who have fled from the Soviet zone. After talking with them, I voted as far right as I could get." Said a Wiesbaden Hausfrau: "We are fed up with socialization. We know that it means bureaucracy. Our reconstruction would have moved much faster if it had not been snarled up by all this officialdom. Let the businessmen have a chance."