End of an Age

Oaken-hearted Konrad Adenauer, who has won a lot of political victories by force of character and the iron logic of his policies, came through again last week, but not without difficulties. His normally ashen face lightly tanned after a long Swiss vacation, he took autocratic command of his Christian Democratic Union's annual conference at Stuttgart and sought to silence all talk of picking his successor or changing his policies.

"What Alternatives?" When the time came to choose party officers, the old (80) Chancellor acted as both chairman and nominating committee. He proposed his slate, ignored all hands raised against it, and announced amid gasps: "As nearly as I can see, it's unanimous." When the time came to lay down doctrine, Adenauer announced that the party would fight the 1957 elections on the same reunification plank as in 1953: "We hold fast to the policy of integration of Europe and the Atlantic community." It was folly to think that Germany could act unilaterally without antagonizing its friends: "Ladies and gentlemen, believe me, we are not at all liked in the world yet."

Turning on those members who think he should climb down and ask Moscow's price for German unity, he growled: "After the results of the London negotiations there can no longer be any man in Germany who thinks the time has come to begin something with the Russians." Though many delegates felt that the old man's foreign policy had not borne fruit, only one dared openly to question its inflexibility. When Berlin Deputy Ferdinand Friedensburg suggested in an almost painfully respectful little speech that perhaps Germany should have alternative policies on reunification, the Chancellor leaped to the rostrum with the agility of a man of 50. He shook a stubby finger at Friedensburg and roared: "What alternatives?"

The Old Soft Shoe. On foreign policy der Alte was plainly on the defensive. With next year's elections in mind, the Christian Democrats were dreaming up some vote-getting domestic measures in stead. Usually, at this season of the year, Finance Minister Fritz Schäffer plays his annual spring masquerade as the national miser. He puts on his shawl and oldest pair of shoes, bums a cigarette from his chauffeur and totters onstage to wail that the country is bound for the poorhouse unless he gets a few billions more to balance his budget. This year Schäffer, who bows to no man as a politician, has a tounded his audience by capering out and saying he is ready to cut taxes by $300 million, even after promising a cool billion for new farm subsidies. And how will he raise it? It's an open secret in Bonn that he will just get the Chancellor to let him use the greater part of the $2.1 billion earmarked for defense spending this year. The new army is so far behind schedule, all agree, that it could not spend the money anyway.

The New Allies. Such surefire schemes may well see the Christian Democrats safely through the 1957 elections. But the old political scene is fast changing. Adenauer once had the most impressive and solid parliamentary majority in Western Europe (334 votes out of 487), but it has been whittled down to 281 votes, and many who vote for him are restive.