Word: erhards
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People are always underrating Ludwig Erhard. Many were sure that he was not enough of a politician to carry his Christian Democratic Union to victory in last month's elections. When Erhard won overwhelmingly, doubters predicted humiliating defeat for him in the intricate task of forming a new Cabinet. The Gummilöwe (Rubber Lion) would surely knuckle under to Bonn's wily professional politicians in the scramble for ministerial seats...
...Erhard's amiable way of meeting the challenge was to let the pros blow off steam. Postponing decisions until the week before the Bundestag convened on Oct. 20 to re-elect him Chancellor, he took off for a holiday by the Tegernsee, leaving stage center in Bonn to former Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss, who bosses the 49-man Bavarian branch of the C.D.U. known as the Christian Social Union. Strauss began announcing to reporters and anyone else who would listen, that Erhard must dump Foreign Minister Gerhard Schröder, a well-known "Atlanticist" who believes that Germany...
Strauss got an assist from a fellow Gaullist, that wily old (89) wheeler-dealer ex-Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Adenauer proclaimed that President Heinrich Lübke, his great admirer, had every constitutional right to veto Erhard's Cabinet appointments. Schröder fought back in interviews by arguing that his views were, after all, the same as Erhard's. His foes paid small heed. Snapped der Alte: "You have proved totally incompetent. Germany's position in the world has sunk to a new low, and you are to blame...
Nerve Test. Strauss & Co.'s most outrageous ploy was to threaten Erhard that Strauss might take his Bavarians out of the C.D.U. altogether, the implication being that he might then form a majority with the opposition Social Democrats. "They have their nerve," growled Erhard to an aide. In fact, he knew, they didn't have that much nerve, and when the time was right, he put them to the test. At a series of caucuses ending last week in the ornate Palais Schaumburg, Erhard's official residence, the Chancellor informed his adversaries that Schröder would...
Head for a Head? For Erhard, victory did not mean the end of struggle. Before him lay the intricate task of building a Cabinet before the Bundestag convenes on Oct. 19. It might not be easy, for the C.D.U., three seats short of an outright majority, inevitably needs Mende's Free Democrats once again for a coalition that could wield firm parliamentary control. Mende promptly staked out his claims: for himself, the vice-chancellorship and Ministry of All-German Affairs again, plus three other Cabinet posts for his party. Somehow, however, Erhard would have to reconcile Mende...