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Adenauer, at eighty, has fully recovered from his serious illness and has taken over the government with a bang. His first act of real governing was a masterful rebuke to the minority partner in his coalition government, the FDP. That somewhat unreliable rally of opportunistic politicians had assumed that, what with Der Alte practically gone and the Russians so deliciously tempting, the time had come for effective blackmailing. And so the leader of the FDP, Herr Thomas Dehler, had advanced two demands – a direct Russo-German “dialogue,” and a much larger slice of the governmental German melon for the FDP. Adenauer, on returning to his office, crushed the rebellion in his best old style. He told the FDP, in an ultimatum-like letter either to assure him by December 2 that the party adhered to his policy, or to get out of the government. And the rebellion collapsed.

But the delightful aggressiveness of the hardly recovered Adenauer has paradoxically increased the general German apprehensions about the near future: what, indeed, will happen to the German regime when one can no longer count on Adenauer’s extraordinary presence? The forebodings during his recent illness were just as stern as the reassurance on his recovery was heart-warming: while no one knew whether Adenauer would survive, the coalition was practically falling apart, the Social Democrats were strutting as if they had already taken over, and Europe was full of whispers about secret Russo-German negotiations. Now sanity has returned with Adenauer. But for how long? True, Der Alte is a sturdy eighty. Yet more than ever Germany is aware that there is no one to succeed him.

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Adenauer, at eighty, has fully recovered from his serious illness and has taken over the government with a bang. His first act of real governing was a masterful rebuke to the minority partner in his coalition government, the FDP. That somewhat unreliable rally of opportunistic politicians had assumed that, what with Der Alte practically gone and the Russians so deliciously tempting, the time had come for effective blackmailing. And so the leader of the FDP, Herr Thomas Dehler, had advanced two demands – a direct Russo-German “dialogue,” and a much larger slice of the governmental German melon for the FDP. Adenauer, on returning to his office, crushed the rebellion in his best old style. He told the FDP, in an ultimatum-like letter either to assure him by December 2 that the party adhered to his policy, or to get out of the government. And the rebellion collapsed.

But the delightful aggressiveness of the hardly recovered Adenauer has paradoxically increased the general German apprehensions about the near future: what, indeed, will happen to the German regime when one can no longer count on Adenauer’s extraordinary presence? The forebodings during his recent illness were just as stern as the reassurance on his recovery was heart-warming: while no one knew whether Adenauer would survive, the coalition was practically falling apart, the Social Democrats were strutting as if they had already taken over, and Europe was full of whispers about secret Russo-German negotiations. Now sanity has returned with Adenauer. But for how long? True, Der Alte is a sturdy eighty. Yet more than ever Germany is aware that there is no one to succeed him.