Was Konrad Adenauer a wise old sage or a wily old fox? His German nickname 'der Alte' admits both possibilities. He was cwertainly a great statesman of the kind that is sadly missing today.

1. KONRAD ADENAUER, 'DER ALTE'
The first political joke I learned in Germany:
Adenauer to grandchild: What do you want to be when you're grown up, dear child?
Answer: Federal Chancellor, Granddad.
Adenauer: But we already have a Federal Chancellor, don't we?
Konrad Adenauer was born in 1876. In his childhood he experienced life in Germany during the
heydey of Bismarck's power and influence. In his youth he witnessed the fall of Bismarck and
the arrival of an age of military pomp and Prussian glory under the reign of Wilhelm II. In his
prime of life the First World War broke out. At 45 he found himself in the midst of an acute
social and economic crisis at very heart of his native Rhineland when urban warfare was raging
in the Ruhr area. No wonder he contemplated the secession of the Rhineland from the rest of
Germany where in his opinion Prussianism held an all too dominant influence. Now into his
early fifties and the long-time mayor of Cologne, he defied Hitler by ordering the removal of
swastika flags strung along the Deutzer Bridge over the Rhine. On reaching a pensionable age he
languished in a concentration camp. To cut a long story short, it was only at the age of 73, when
those blessed with the attainment of a ripe old age should enjoy the pleasures of retirement, that
Adenauer became the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, the occasion that
launched him into world fame and thus earned him a permanent place in worldwide public
consciousness. Nor did his progress end there. At 86, President Biden take note, he ran for the
chancellorship for the last time at the 1960 federal election with 'Keine Experimente' as his
campaign slogan ('No Experiments" signally a warning again toying with untested socialist
policies). He rounded off his life with a diplomatic coup when he and General de Gaulle signed
the Franco-German accord of 1962. In his final year he visited Israel at the invitation of his old
friend David Ben Gurion.
Well did Adenauer earn his byname 'der Alte.' Translated into English simply as 'the old man,'
this pointer to his advanced age fails to convey the feelings associated with the word in German.
Such feelings range from those with a positive ring to those of a quite different kind, from the
suggestion that Adenauer was a great sage to the allegation that he was a wily old fox, but even
this implied a grudging admiration. That he became old in years no one can deny. His health was
never strong. He lived in Germany through the Nazi era in what has been described as a state of
interior exile, which in later years gained him the sympathy of voters who never forgave Marlene
Dietrich for 'leaving the fold.' From the point of view of the Allies in the Second World War he
was a leading German politician with impeccable democratic credentials, 'with a clean nose,' so
to speak. Adenauer has been accused of being too lenient to old Nazis by allowing them into
positions of influence, perhaps unwittingly. On this premise he did not help Germany to make a
clean break from the Nazi past. If so, he was not greatly encouraged to do so by elements in the
secret services of the Western allies once the Cold War had set in.
Does Adenauer deserve only praise and honour in other matters? With political opponents, and
even with close political associates, he could prove peevish not to say vindictive at times, as in
the case with his dealings with Ludwig Erhard, the finance minister to whom many attribute the
success of 'the German economic miracle.' Perhaps he unwittingly internalized precisely those
elements of Prussianism that he so keenly opposed.

2. He is more vulnerable to criticism for things he did in his pre-war years, his willingness to
abandon the Rhineland to the French sphere of influence, his readiness to countenance tactical
alliances between his Center Party and the National Socialists in the vain hope that shared
responsibility would somehow tame the Nazis, but even Heinrich Bruenning, as leader of the
Center Party, was also prepared to go so far. The events that attend Hitler's Machtergreifung, his
seizure of power, including the issue of his order to pull down the swastika flags mentioned
earlier disabused Adenauer of any notion that there could be any kind of political dialogue with
the Nazis. Then there is the reproach that Adenauer was bigoted when dealing with Prussians and
even Protestants and non-Catholics in general. True, he did not want to open the Center Party to
the membership of non-Catholics, nor was he ready to cooperate with Gustav Stresemann, by no
means a typical 'Prussian.' and his Liberal Party despite the latter's great contribution to
improved relations between Germany and its former enemies. After the war Adenauer made up
for his former frostiness with political opponents, whether Socialist, Communist or simply
'Prussian.' The newly formed CDU imposed no limitations to membership and candidacy.
Adenauer took a bold step when meeting the leadership of the Soviet Union to negotiate the
release of the remaining German Prisoners of War in the Soviet state. Did Adenauer have
reservations about encouraging German re-unification? Yes, but out of the recognition that a
premature re-unification before defining the Federal Republic's status with the Western alliance,
would lead his nation into a state of mishmash and contention between conflicting political
forces. Subsequent events proved him right as East German regions became states within the
existent framework of the Federal Republic without confronting insurmountable obstacles,
difficult enough as these were. I do not think, however that Adenauer would have been so
sanguine about Berlin, the former Prussian capital, becoming the centre of a re-unified Germany.
Having rejected his early secessionist leanings during the Weimar Republic, Adenauer at least
assured that his Rhineland would be the political and cultural hub of West Germany in
preference to Frankfurt am Main, the leading contestant for this role. He would have preferred to
see a smaller and closely knit European Union based on the Franco-German accords much after
the model proposed by General de Gaulle, instead of the bloated and discordant European Union
of the present day. De Gaulle also warned against unnecessarily being at loggerheads with the
Russians and against being over-reliant on the United States in matters of vital interest. It seems
that Donald Rumsfeld's "New Europeans' have taken over, and however understandable their
anger with their Russian neighbours on account of their historical grievances, intemperance is no
safe pilot as we sail though very dangerous waters. Perhaps Adenauer was the last true statesman
in the world after 1945, and we certainly need a new one of his ilk today, do we not?