The highly significant elections in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany’s southwestern state, had precisely the result foreseen and feared by most observers. The Christian Democratic Union of Chancellor Kiesinger (a Wurttemberger) suffered a very minor setback, the Free Democratic Party (which has strong roots in that area) gained slightly, while the Social Democrats lost heavily and the allegedly Nazi National Democratic Party got an impressive one-tenth of the seats.
Dr. Gerstenmeier, President of the Bonn Diet and a member of the CDU, declared immediately that the outcome was a heavy blow to Germany’s good name abroad. He foresaw, correctly, that it would inevitably give nourishment to the view that “Nazism is returning to Germany.”
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