Foreign News: The General Must Wait

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Ever since the Knights of the Teutonic Order stormed ironshod over northeastern Europe, German military commanders have made their marks as rigid disciplinarians who brooked no nonsense from anyone, civilians in particular. In Bonn last week, ambitious young Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss made headline news by turning the tables.

Strauss had proposed a Defense Ministry lieutenant colonel for promotion. Brigadier General Burkhart Müller-Hillebrand, a 52-year-old member of the clannish former German General Staff, working in the personnel section, objected so strongly in writing to the colonel's lack of combat distinction in World War II that Strauss ordered the general to report to him immediately in full-dress uniform. Müller-Hillebrand obeyed, but when he had waited 30 minutes outside Strauss's office, he stalked out declaring: "This has not happened in my entire military career. If the Minister wants to talk to me, tell him I am at home."

Strauss sent a driver to haul the reluctant general back, explained in equally tough terms that he himself often had to wait half an hour or more for his boss, Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, and thought nothing of it. Then Strauss, who has a flair for the dramatic gesture to point a moral, sacked General Müller-Hillebrand and gave a one-word explanation of his action: "Insubordination." German newspapers seemed delighted.