West Germany: The Heart of Europe

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More Time. Having eschewed right-wing, fascist forms—the neo-Nazis have virtually vanished—yet not quite grown accustomed to the democratic freedom they have so newly learned, the young, like their elders, accept the good life as an acceptable god on earth. A whole new generation of German writers is angry about German materialism. "Money is the lowest common denominator in all the pyramids of the West German social order," says Rudolf Leonhardt in his X Mai Deutsch land. "If anybody leads, it is the businessmen; there is no national purpose beyond the maintenance of prosperity."

That is not the worst purpose a country can have. Some politicians and sociologists point out that democracy in Germany could not have risen or lasted had it not been for material wellbeing. Ludwig Erhard, the patron saint of that wellbeing, himself feels that his country needs a greater sense of national purpose. Perhaps a sense of being at the heart of the West's defenses against Communism may yet prove to be enough purpose for any nation. To crystallize that sense beyond the present uncertainties and to help build the structure that must contain it, is a task that will take far longer than the two years that lie before Erhard fn his present term of office. But he may have more time. Erhard made clear last week that he will lead his party in the elections of 1965. Said he: "I do not feel like a transition Chancellor."