OPEN HOUSE ON THE RHINE

IT was a scene reminiscent of 1829, when Andrew Jackson's mud-booted backwoods supporters swarmed into the White House for Old Hickory's Inaugural Day reception. Celebrating his election last week as West Germany's first postwar Socialist Chancellor, Willy Brandt invited all comers to his official villa on Bonn's exclusive Venusberg, overlooking the Rhine.

Brandt and his flaxen-haired Norwegian wife Rut were at the door to greet the crowd. More than 500 ordinary Germans, who normally would have been held back by police lines, trooped into the splendidly furnished 14-room residence. Stiff at first, they gawked at the Gobelin tapestry on the wall and perched awkwardly on the edge of burgundy settees and easy chairs. But the uneasiness quickly wore off. Soon workingmen in open shirts, longhaired youths and nurses from a nearby hospital were helping themselves to cigarettes, guzzling beer and surveying the place as if they owned it.

Loyal and Uncomfortable. It was a fitting if highly unorthodox way for the new Chancellor to commemorate his victory. For a while, there had been some doubt whether there would be a Brandt government at all. After last month's national elections, Brandt made a daring grab for power (TIME Cover, Oct. 10). Neither his Social Democrats nor the conservative Christian Democratic Union, partners for nearly three years in a Grand Coalition, had won an outright majority. Outmaneuvering the Christian Democrats, who won 242 seats in the 496-seat Bundestag to the Socialists' 224, Brandt formed an alliance with the tiny Free Democrats, whose 30 seats represented the balance of power. The question was, would the schizophrenic Free Democrats, split into left and right wings, remain sufficiently united to vote Brandt into power?

Taking no chances on anyone's missing last week's crucial balloting, whips for the Socialists and Free Democrats summoned their delegates to Bonn a day early. The precaution worked. As the Bundestag convened for the Kanzlerwahl (Chancellor's election), each Socialist and Free Democrat was in his place. While the votes were being tabulated, Brandt resorted to his favorite method of relieving tension: he snapped wooden matchsticks, going through an entire box in 20 minutes. Then came the announcement: 251 votes for Brandt, two over the required absolute majority; 235 votes against him; five abstentions, presumably including three by recalcitrant Free Democrats; and four ballots rendered invalid with markings like "poor Germany" and "nonsense."

Thus, 91 years to the day after Bismarck banned the Socialists from Imperial Germany and 39 years since the party last headed a government, a Socialist candidate was chosen to lead West Germany. Political Strategist Herbert Wehner, the fierce ex-Communist who masterminded the transformation of the Socialists from a blue-collar movement into a more broadly based party, rushed to embrace Brandt. Their dream finally realized, Brandt openly wept. "I am satisfied, grateful for the confidence and a little proud," he said a few moments later. Then the new Chancellor, who spent the Nazi years in Scandinavian exile, added: "Hitler has definitively lost."