Adenauer Looks Like a Winner

The battle for the German election in September is shaping up with an unusual amount of venom and vehemence. From an ideological and psychological point of view this struggle is quite as interesting, though less sinister in its final implication, as the internal developments in Italy. The ruling party, the CDU-CSU, has entered the battle with a glowing optimism which Dr. Adenauer has tried to dampen in an effort to get a maximum elec-tioneering effort from his men and a decisive victory. Continued prosperity; the phenomenal rise in the price of Volkswagen shares (up 250 per cent in three weeks’ time); the premium paid to savers who have seen the Deutschmark jump 5 per cent in value; the accelerated building of superhighways and the electrification of the railroads (at long last in the black!)—all these enhance the popularity of the ruling party. The CDU, indeed, has only personality problems, among them: the personal animosity of Adenauer and Erhard, the steady rise of the tough and ambitious Franz Joseph Strauss, plus minor frictions in the lower party echelons.

Kuehnelt-Leddihn

EK

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Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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The battle for the German election in September is shaping up with an unusual amount of venom and vehemence. From an ideological and psychological point of view this struggle is quite as interesting, though less sinister in its final implication, as the internal developments in Italy. The ruling party, the CDU-CSU, has entered the battle with a glowing optimism which Dr. Adenauer has tried to dampen in an effort to get a maximum elec-tioneering effort from his men and a decisive victory. Continued prosperity; the phenomenal rise in the price of Volkswagen shares (up 250 per cent in three weeks’ time); the premium paid to savers who have seen the Deutschmark jump 5 per cent in value; the accelerated building of superhighways and the electrification of the railroads (at long last in the black!)—all these enhance the popularity of the ruling party. The CDU, indeed, has only personality problems, among them: the personal animosity of Adenauer and Erhard, the steady rise of the tough and ambitious Franz Joseph Strauss, plus minor frictions in the lower party echelons.

Kuehnelt-Leddihn