In Memoriam: Konrad Adenauer

Wide World Photos GERMANY has lost one of her greatest statesmen. Konrad Ade nauer faced problems far more difficult than those which con fronted Bismarck. As the remains of the 91-year-old Chancellor were consigned to the soil of his native Rhineland, the German Republic mourned the loss of its founding father. He was the individual to whom she mainly owed her rapid return to political and moral es teem and economic prosperity after the fearful ravages of Hit ler's dictatorship and the Second Mr. Chamberlin is a skilled observer and re porter of economic and political conditions at home and abroad. In addition to writing a number of books, he has lectured widely and is a contributor to The Wall Street Journal and numerous magazines. IN MEMORIAM: KONRAD ADENAUER WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN World War. America and West ern Europe had reason to lament the loss of a stanch friend and ally. And the world is poorer for the loss of one who cherished and embodied some of the finest values of nineteenth century civilization.

In the personality and career of Konrad Adenauer, a career which began after those of most of his contemporaries were fin ished, the man and the hour met with singular appropriateness. It is an old German legend that the famous twelfth-century Emperor Frederick Barbarossa is not dead, but sleeping in the heart of a magic mountain, from which, at the time of Germany's greatest 387 388 THE FREEMAN July need, he will emerge as his coun try's savior and preserver. Al though free entirely of the ex treme racist nationalism of the Nazi era, Adenauer has made this legend come true. He combined some of the best qualities of the Old Germany - devotion to duty, willingness to work without stint or limi t - with a keen and just appreciation of the position, needs, and limitations of the New. In order to appreciate the mag nitude of Adenauer's achievement one must think of Germany, not as .the busy, prosperous land of today, but as the broken, prostrate country of the first postwar years.

Large parts of her cities were great masses of rubble. Her cur rency was worthless. The country was divided into four zones of occupation. Her people were re duced to a near-starvation diet and deprived of hope to improve their condition in the future by harsh restriction on what Ger many was supposed to produce in steel and other industrial goods. Reasonable Goals When German self-government, with many limitations and restric tions, was restored in 1949, Ade nauer took over as the first Chan cellor, or Prime Minister. He set himself a few clear and simple goals, all of which, with one ex ception, he realized with remarkable speed and success. A true conservative, in the best sense of the term, he abhorred commu nism as he had detested Nazism. (Hitler deposed him as burgomaster of Cologne, and he spent part of the Nazi era in prison or in hiding). Putting aside any idea of try ing to playoff the victorious powers against each other, the Chancellor committed himself to wholehearted cooperation with Western Europe and the United States. He recognized that Ger many could regain freedom and prosperity only as a part of a larger Europe, with the backing of the United States.