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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, April 3, 1981
Thus the stage is set for what most observers believe will be a bloody
showdown, with dire consequences possible. For one, the world's economy
could be dealt a big blow if the Soviets decide to move in. The very
significant trade between East and West Europe would come to a screeching
halt. Militarily, the Western countries can do nothing since Poland lies
totally in the Soviet orbit, squeezed between East Germany and the Soviet
Union.
Yet, a Soviet intervention could wake up nations in Western Europe that
have lost their spirit, having become mired in materialism. Even the
United States, itself coming out of a slumber, has been warning Western
Europe of a "creeping pacifism," of a desire to be "Better Red than dead."
West German% toq has succumbed somewhat to this paralysis of will. The
Federal Republic has been running out of steam. Chancellor Helmut Schmidt
is
struggling to stay
in
office, to prevent
a
blowup of his
coalition
which is torn between the radical left of his own party and the moderate
center-right Free Democrats. Herr Schmidt's future will be better known
after the mayoralty elections in West Berlin next month. Berlin has long
been a Social Democratic stronghold, at one time catapulting its mayor,
Willy Brandt, right into the Chancellor's seat. But a scandal in the city
government now imperils SPD control of this key political seat.
The CDU conservatives, however, are not taking full advantage of the
troubles in the ruling SPD-FDP coalition. Party leader Helmut Kohl,
according to some critics, is trying to move the party more to the
politically safe center, hoping to appeal to voters who deserted the
conservatives and Franz Josef Strauss for the FOP last October. At the
same time, Herr Strauss, from his Bavarian Christian Socialist Union
position, is trying to keep the conservative sister parties from slipping
into the muddled middle, thereby losing their uniqueness.
This "lack of uniqueness" reflects West German society as a whole today.
This is brought out in an excellent article in the March 30, 1981 issue
of The New Yorker entitled ''Sinking Into Materialism." The author, William
Pfaff, begins by saying that "West Germany's complicated love affair with
the United States was finally broken off during the Carter years."
More than any other nation involved in the Second World War, free Germany
modeled its society after that of the United States. Britain provided no
role model, since it had chosen to play second fiddle to the American
superpower. France, humiliated by Germany in 1940, could not be the
example for the new democratic Germany either.
The United States and its new German "son" respected each other. "This
cooperation," said Pfaff, underlined by "characteristic American pragma
tism and good will" was made all the easier because "the United States
had not really suffered very much at German hands." Maturing as a new
nation, the Germans proceeded to make peace with their neighbors, prin
cipally the French. The trans-Rhine tie was sealed with the meeting of
Adenauer and de Gaulle
in
1962.
Still, the Germans continued beset by what Pfaff called "the unstated
problem of German national definition. What role was the new Germany to
play in post-war Europe?" Reunification with that part of Germany under
Soviet domination was out of the question, for the short run at least.
The allied nations, even the U.S., paid only lip service to the distant,