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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 8, 1985
ON THE WORLD SCENE
STRAUSS--VERY MUCH ALIVE1 KENNEDY'S GREEN LIGHT1 CANADA'S ETHNIC
CHAN:;E1 NE.W AIDS WORRY1 CHINA AND JAPAN--'IWO REMARKABLE LEADERS
Strauss--Very Much Alive
One of the questions I'm most frequently
asked is: "What is Franz Josef Strauss doing these days?" Except for
occasional broadsides he fires at what he considers the ineptitude of
the Kohl coalition government, it is true that the "King of Bavaria,"
as he is sometimes called, doesn't make many headlines in the United
States. But Strauss is still a formidable figure on the world stage.
(He recently made another trip to China where he conferred with Deng
Xiaoping.>
Franz Josef Strauss, wrote Frank Johnson of the TIMES of London (Sep
tember 9, 1983), continues to be "that large and important national
politician without a large and important national job."
Just how
important he is was revealed in the extraordinary (10-day-l_
ong
! )
birthday festivities held in his honor this past September when he
turned 70. 'Ille following account, published in the September 12, 1985
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, was written by Elizabeth Pond, one of the
best media observers of the German scene.
There's been nothing quite like him since, well, since Ludwig
II, Maximilian I, and Albert
v,
who held their receptions in
the glittering Rococo ballrooms of Bavaria during the 16th
century Counter-Reformation. 'Ille comparison with monarchs is
not unwelcome to Franz Josef Strauss, premier of Bavaria, the
only politician left who has been prominent since the postwar
founding of West Germany.
He wears many hats:
sel f-made
millionaire1 ex-minister of atomic science, defense, and
financei failed candidate for the chancellorshipr bogeyman of
the left1 sharp-tongued scourge of his own conservative
allies as well as of his ideological adversariesi and--at 70
years old--an only slightly-tamed enfant terrible.
The birthday festivities� going for 10 days (Sept. � to
14)--a personal festival without precedent in democratic
Germany. Most of the celebrations are taking place in the
Free State of Bavaria, which last elected Strauss with an
overwhel ming 62 percent.
Strauss did, however, take his
movable feast for one day to the West German capital that
scorned him and selected Helmut Kohl as chancellor, a far
less-qualified conservative, in Strauss's opinion.
Dr. Kohl himsel f joined the birthday party on its first day-
in the seven-hour reception line at the Prince Carl Palace in
Munich, where all the homage began. President Richard von
Weizsacker was in Munich, too•••• Ex-Presidents Karl Carstens
and Walter Scheel were on hand as well, the former to present
praise for Strauss from the likes of President Reagan, Henry
Kissinger, ex-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, and Strauss's elder
sister.