TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/caps/82/82kohl

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æ                                                  ┘««Helmut Kohl
Changing of the Guard

October 11, 1982

Schmidt is out, Kohl is in, and an ambiguous new era beckons

Finally, the weeks of confusion and political conniving had come to
an end.  Bored though they were by a debate that had droned on for
more than five hours, members of West Germany's parliament watched
closely as Bundestag President Richard Stucklen rose to make a curt
announcement:  the opposition motion of no confidence in the minority
government of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt had carried by a vote of 256
to 235, with four abstentions.  While colleagues began congratulating
Opposition Leader Helmut Kohl, the Christian Democratic Party
chairman grinned broadly as he acknowledged the results of the
ballot.  Said Kohl:  "Mr. President, I accept the vote."

Through a seldom used constitutional provision called a
"constructive" vote of no confidence, Kohl, 52, had become West
Germany's sixth and youngest postwar Chancellor, ending 13 years of
continuous rule by Social Democratic governments.  Hours after the
decision, an ebullient Kohl, garbed in cutaway coat, striped trousers
and top hat, accepted the formal document of his appointment from
Karl Carstens, President of the Federal Republic.  Kohl declared his
unprecedented parliamentary victory "a great day for democracy" and
proclaimed the task ahead to be "a spiritual and oral challenge."

Last week's momentous Bundestag vote grew out of weeks of virtual
paralysis and political infighting between the country's major
parties following the Sept. 17 breakup of Helmut Schmidt's ruling
center-left coalition.  It marked the first time in West Germany's
postwar history that a change in leadership was brought about by the
use of the "constructive" procedure.*  The unorthodox method of the
changing of the guard in Bonn gave an element of instability and
uncertainty to the fledgling Kohl government, which has tentatively
promised national elections for next March 6.  Kohl's new coalition
is untested, and his Christian Democratic Union has not been
overwhelmingly successful in recent state elections.  Kohl's new
junior partners, the Free Democrats, led by Schmidt's former Foreign
Minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, carry the stigma of having bolted
from their longtime coalition with the Social Democrats.  Since then
they have suffered severe setbacks at the state level.

Beyond that, the new Chancellor will face vigorous opposition from
the Social Democrats and from West Germany's rising third force of
environmentalists and antinuclear activist known as the Greens.  Kohl
seemed to grasp the political difficulties confronting him as he
faced television cameras after the Bundestag vote.  Said he:  "Now I
am the Chancellor.  I have been in politics too long, know too much
about the daily routine of politics, not to know what difficulties
lie ahead."

Schmidt, 63, looked ashen as he shook hands with Kohl following the
Bundestag debate that preceded the balloting.  After eight highly
visible years as Chancellor, Schmidt precipitated the no-confidence
vote when he abruptly broke up the S.P.D.'s alliance with the Free
Democrats and called unsuccessfully for new elections after it had
become obvious last month that the Free Democratic Party (F.D.P.) was
about to switch its allegiance to Kohl.  Schmidt's departure form the
glass-and-steel Chancellery in Bonn marks the end of an era.  The
economist-politician from Hamburg, a man of formidable intellect and
political skill, established himself as a world statesman, the first
West German leader since World War II to pursue an assertive foreign
policy unclouded by guilt about the past.  One longtime acquaintance
who was shocked by Schmidt's defeat, former U.S. Secretary of State
Cyrus Vance, praised the ousted Chancellor for "his great
intelligence and a great deal of wisdom--he has a rare combination of
both."

Schmidt spent his last evening as Chancellor working in his office
until about 8 p.m., then took a car to S.P.D. headquarters on Bonn's
Ollenhauerstrasse to address a rain-drenched rally of some 1,500
party faithful.  Wearing his trademark blue wool sailor's cap,
Schmidt drew thunderous cheers as he declared:  "The S.P.D. is the
only party committed to peacemaking."

The Bundestag convened promptly at 9 the next morning.  Speaker after
speaker from each side droned on, charging the opposing forces with
treachery and duplicity.  Schmidt, dressed in a dark-blue suit, sat
in the first seat of the government bench, characteristically
studying documents, making small marginal notes, seemingly paying no
attention to the debate.  Kohl occupied seat No. 13 of the opposition
benches; behind and above him, in the chamber's diplomatic gallery,
were Kohl's wife Hannelore and their two sons, Walter 20, and Peter,
18.

Schmidt began his 58-min. valedictory speech with a litany of S.P.D.
accomplishments over the past 13 years.  Then he lashed out at the
newly formed center-right coalition that was about to bring down his
government.  "Your way of behaving is legal, but it has no inner, no
moral justification," shouted Schmidt.  "The voters will not forget
this behavior for many years."  He admonished Kohl to "tell the whole
people today, without ifs or buts, that we will elect a new
parliament on March 6."  Because of all the speeches, the secret
balloting on Kohl's no-confidence motion began two hours later than
scheduled.  Though the votes were tallied behind closed doors,
expectant Christian Democratic deputies got advance word that Kohl
had won, and began slapping each other on the back and shaking hands.
Exulted one:  "We're back where we belong at last!"

Five days before the Bundestag ballot, West German voters seemed to
display their unease about the impending new coalition in elections
for the local parliament of the central industrial state of Hesse.
Widely expected to win a clear majority in that election, the
Christian Democrats polled 45.6% of the vote.  The Free Democrats
were wiped out of the assembly, gaining only 3.1% of the vote, far
less than the 5% necessary to retain representation.  Campaigning
vigorously under the slogan "Betrayal in Bonn," Schmidt's Social
Democrats gained 42.8%, an increase of more than 10 percentage points
over their predicted total.  Said S.D.P. Chairman Willy Brandt after
the election:  "The electorate has spoken.  The Hesse election shave
strong national implications."

Brandt hoped that the Hesse results would deter the Free Democrats
from joining forces with Kohl.  Two days after the election, however,
the 54 Free Democrat members of the Bundestag decided by a vote of 34
to 18 to go ahead with the no-confidence maneuver.

A low-key politician from Rhineland-Palatinate who has spent three
decades in Christian Democratic national politics, Kohl is a striking
contrast to the hard-driving and brilliant but sometimes arrogant
Schmidt.  Known in West Germany as the Black Giant, the dark-
complexioned 6-ft. 4-in. jowly Kohl is folksy, gregarious and a
devout Roman Catholic.  In the Bundestag, Schmidt is always poised
and formal.  Kohl, on the other hand, has frequently been seen
sitting on the opposition benches roaring with laughter, as if
parliamentary business were some huge joke.  Kohl is fond of saying
that "my strength is that people are ready to buy a used car from me
without testing it."

The personal differences between Kohl and Schmidt will undoubtedly
stand out most sharply at international conference tables.  With his
economist's training and his experience as West German Defense
Minister under Brandt, Schmidt brought vast expertise to
international economic issues and nuclear defense questions within
NATO, a gap that Kohl cannot hope to fill.  Balanced against that,
however, was Schmidt's notorious impatience, which drew sparks from
other strong-willed statesmen, and his increasingly frequent bouts of
personal depression.

Despite his inexperience, the jovial Kohl may get along better than
Schmidt did with Ronald Reagan and Britain's Margaret Thatcher.  The
fact that the three share a conservative political philosophy may be
more important than one impediment to mutual understanding:  Kohl
speaks little English.  In Washington, White House officials note
with pleasure such Kohl statements as:  "People have come to think of
the Soviet Union only as a detente and trade partner.  We have to
remind them of the true nature of Soviet expansionism."

On major foreign policy issues, however, the difference between Kohl
and Schmidt, at lest in the short term, is more likely to be one of
tone rather than substance--what a Kohl aids has called "continuity
with new accents."  The new Chancellor will echo schmidt's firm stand
in support of the 1983 installation of intermediate-range cruise and
Pershing II missiles in Western Europe, although he may face more
vociferous opposition than his predecessor did from West Germany's
burgeoning anti-nuclear movement.  Also, Kohl is unlikely to change
West Germany's position on the building of the Soviet gas pipeline,
since the project will have direct effect on his country's business
interests.

Kohl will have to tread cautiously at home.  Even before his
Bundestag victory last week, West Germany's powerful trade unions had
begun girding for conflict with the new Chancellor, who must quickly
come to grips with problems of the country's sagging economy.  The
most sensitive issue is social-welfare spending:  at a time when 1.8
million West Germans are unemployed, businessmen are complaining
loudly that 70% of their labor costs are for social benefits, the
steepest percentage in Western Europe.  Says Liane Launhardt, an
economist for the Frankfurt-based Commerzbank:  "There is no doubt
that what we have done over the years is escalate the social safety
net."  Agrees Economist Wolfgang Baumann of the Cologne-based
Federation of Industry:  "What we need is a shift to supply-side
economics, German-style."

Any such move is liable to trigger harsh union reaction.  In response
to a relatively mild Kohl proposal for limiting public-sector wage
increases, Monika Wulf-Mathies, leader of the country's 1.2 million-
member civil servants union, called the plan a "declaration of war,"
and threatened strike action if the proposal is carried out.  Having
long and patiently planned his parliamentary assault on the
Chancellor's office.  Kohl must now prepare for all the battles that
his new job will entail.


*Under Article 67 of West Germany's constitutional Basic Law, a
simple majority of deputies in the 497-seat Bundestag can remove the
Chancellor provided that they "constructively" designate a successor.
As Christian Democratic leader in 1972, Rainer Barzel tried and
failed to use the provision to topple Social Democratic Chancellor
Willy Brandt.

--By George Russell.
  Reported by Roland Flamini and John Moody/Bonn