West Germany: The Last Weeks

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For a while last week, West Germany's election campaign seemed to be revolving around a 16-year-old boy and a man of almost 90.

The boy was Peter Brandt, son of West Berlin's Mayor Willy Brandt, the Social Democratic candidate for the chancellorship. Just as his father was crisscrossing the country on a campaign train in search of voter support, the news broke that Peter had put his signature on a Communist front's petition accusing the U.S. of using poison gas in Viet Nam, and demanding withdrawal of American troops. It caused quite a flap for a day or two—until the boy withdrew his name. Both Sides of the Street. The octogenarian provided a more prolonged distraction. He was the Christian Democrats' Konrad Adenauer, who was noisily upset about the nuclear nonproliferation blueprint unveiled by the U.S. at the Geneva disarmament talks. Foreign Minister Gerhard Schröder, though none too pleased with a plan that could leave West Germany out in the cold bombwise, had politely praised it as "an interesting contribution." Erhard agreed, but not der Alte. In an address at Münster, one of some 50 campaign appearances scheduled by the doughty ex-Chancellor, he lashed out at the plan as "atrocious, dangerous and basically false, so monstrous and so terrible that in the long view it delivers Europe into the hands of the Russians."

Many a German, of course, would agree with Adenauer, and in a way the C.D.U. was cannily working both sides of the street. But the S.P.D. could also make a little political capital out of Adenauer's blast, insisting that it showed a split in C.D.U. ranks. Brandt is not exactly a magnetic speaker, but he was able to silence one heckler-packed audience in Heidelberg by stepping up to the mike and declaring, "Dear friends and opponents, so that the rest of us will know where we are, will the opponents please divide into those who are for Erhard and those who are for Adenauer?"

Something for Everyone. Brandt's campaign—like Ludwig Erhard's—has been distinctly low key so far, He is currently riding around on a campaign train that, by election time, will have traveled 12,500 miles; he will have visited 44 major cities and delivered no fewer than 75 speeches and 250 curbside pep talks. He has stuck largely to such main issues as prices, education, and health—avoiding rough personal attacks on his opponent.

That task fell to Brandt's shadow Defense Minister Helmut Schmidt, 46. At a rally for 25,000 in Dortmund, Schmidt heaped scorn on Erhard. "One reads his campaign literature," cried Schmidt. "Me, me, me, I, I, I. The psychologists call this overcompensation of one's own complexes." To roars of applause and whistles, he went on, "The man has absolutely no powers of decision. The symbol on Herr Erhard's coat of arms should not be a cigar but a shaking pudding."

Doing their bit to boost the tension were the latest opinion polls, which had something for everyone. One private survey made for the C.D.U. showed that Erhard's party lead had shrunk from 48% to 45%, a bare 2% ahead of the Social Democrats. A second study, made by an equally respected polling organization, showed they still had 47% of the vote, enough for the solid victory Ludwig Erhard hopes for.