WEST GERMANY: Guten A p petit

Under the impact of West Germany's economic "miracle," the socializing fire that once raged in the soul of German workers is sputtering low. Last week, formally throwing overboard the dogmas of Socialist Prophet Karl Marx, West Germany's Social Democratic Party issued a new statement of party principles that proclaimed: "Free competition as far as possible, planning only as necessary." And in the bustling, middle-class city of Stuttgart, well-tailored, paunchy successors of the slam-bang trade union streetfighters who formed Soviets in Germany four decades ago rode in their limousines to the sedate national convention of self-satisfied bureaucrats who now constitute the German Federation of Trade Unions.

Chairman Willi Richter, 64, keynoted: "Owning a radio or TV set or refrigerator or washing machine is today no longer a luxury. It merely corresponds to the level of our civilization." His federation, which has seen its membership fall from 40% of Germany's labor force to about 33% in the last decade, this year was making an easygoing pitch for shorter working hours. But when pink-cheeked Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard appeared at the opening session and voiced a fervent appeal for longer, not shorter, hours, the delegates dutifully applauded and dropped the idea of a resolution on the subject.

Late one convention morning, an irate delegate finally jumped up, shouted that the convention was an issue-dodging fake. The convention heard him out. Then the chairman announced: "We have now earned our lunch. Guten Appetit" And with that, everyone trooped off to a meal of mushroom soup, rolled beef bürgerlich and grape tart with whipped cream.