After Adenauer

After four weeks in bed with a severe bout of bronchial pneumonia, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was up and about again. The old man (he will be 80 next January) was still confined to his villa overlooking the Rhine, but he called in his Cabinet officers and kept up with the news from Geneva (see above). Doctors had advised a three-month vacation in Sicily, but der Alte would have none of it. "A leave of convalescence does not seem required," said a bulletin from Bonn.

During the nationwide fretting over the Chancellor's illness, one previously unmentionable subject got talked about, and all but settled. Should Adenauer die in harness or be forced by ill health to resign, he will be succeeded by his Finance Minister, wispy Fritz Schaffer, the penny-pinching Bavarian banker who did most to make the German mark sound. At his age (67), Schaffer would probably be only an interim leader until some younger, stronger man could emerge. For the long pull, the betting now favors Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano, 51, or Trade Unionist Karl Arnold, 54, Minister President of West Germany's biggest state, North Rhine-Westphalia.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.