Crocker Snow Reports From Germany; Tribute To Adenauer

Konrad Adenauer will always have a place in German history. West Germany's first post-war Chancellor, "Der Alte," as he was known, gained the post at the time the Federal Republic was formally established by the Allied occupation powers in 1948. Adenauer ruled for 16 years. Most significant years in the history of the country. First in the wake of the currency reforms came the efforts to relieve the horrible deprivations of a physically and psychologically torn land. The Germans had to learn to overcome or overlook a national guilt conscience which the excesses of Nazi days had left behind. The proud Adenauer was a perfect one to lead them in this. His years of rule weren't quiet ones. In 1953 came the East Berlin Uprising and the almost continuous Berlin crisis in the latter '50s which culminated, of course, in the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. This was a time when the population of fifty eight and a half million became at least partially used to the fact of a divided Germany. It was also a period of the wirschaftswunder, the

economic miracle. During the time that Der Alte was Chancellor, West Germany climbed to the rank of the third leading industrial nation in the world, a remarkable achievement made possible through Marshall Plan aid combined with German drive and initiative. Adenauer came from the Rhineland, the heart of Catholic Germany. He wanted to remain there even as chancellor. So much so that the temporary capital of the Federal Republic was established at Bonn instead of the obvious places like Frankfurt or Munich or Hamburg. Why Bonn? It was a fairly insignificant university town of less than 100,000. It was also just across the Rhine River from Adenauer's hometown, Lillendorf. The city was, and is, small, rainy, and provincial. A standard joke has a visiting diplomat asking a colleague after a hard day "Where is the nightlife here?" "She left town last night," answers the old hand. The fact that Bonn

remains the capital of West Germany today to a small degree reflects the influence of Adenauer in the country. Der Alte governed at a time when Germany was preoccupied with American occupation. The greatest fear of West German leaders during the '50s was that the US would back down out of our commitments, that we would choose to withdraw rather than fight if a showdown with the Russians came over Berlin. In this concern Adenauer found a very strong ally in John Foster Dulles. The old German leader and President Eisenhower's authoritative secretary of state became close friends. Their friendship played a part in the close relations between the two countries. Adenauer governed during West Germany's first trials with democracy since the fiasco of the Weimar Republic in the '30s. There is still a question as to just how democratic the country has become. It cannot be said that Adenauer was a champion of democratic development. He was a popular leader, true, but he was sly and crafty,

not always one for direct and open action. But at the same time the country's democracy could never develop at all without security and self-respect. Adenauer certainly provided the former and fostered the latter. Konrad Adenauer retired, not entirely voluntarily, in 1964. He was replaced by Ludwig Erhard, considered the man responsible for the country's great economic successes. But Adenauer regarded his minister of finance as weak and vacillating. He never gave him great support. Der Alte was one of the first of the Christian Democratic leaders to suggest in newspaper and radio interviews almost a year ago that Erhard step down. It's an indication of Konrad Adenauer's influence that, as a 91 year old retired leader, his choice for a replacement was a long shot. Kurt Kiesinger, now the country's third postwar Chancellor.

This is Crocker Snow.