Out by the Kitchen

Gleaming limousines last week drove up to a former concert hall in the Rhine resort of Bad Godesberg, a few minutes away from the new German capital at Bonn. Diplomats of 33 nations and the leading officials of Western Germany had come to pay their respects to Theodor Heuss (rhymes with Boyce), a spry old man with friendly blue eyes, who had just been elected to the highest office in Germany. He was the first President of the new Federal Republic (and the first President since Paul von Hindenburg).

The formality of the calls made Professor Doktor Heuss a bit uneasy. He had wanted the presidency as a sounding board for his democratic ideas. But now that he had it, his thoughts went back to his snug flat near Stuttgart, his cozy book-lined study with the apple branches brushing the windows. When reporters asked him if he wished to be addressed as "Excellency," Heuss snapped: "Certainly not! To everybody and anybody, I shall remain Herr Heuss."

Herr Heuss, jovial, loquacious and witty, has the nimble mind of a hard-digging student. In his 65 years he has been a professor of political science, a biographer, an art critic, a newspaper publisher and an amateur artist. He is an old-fashioned German politician, from his high white collar to his economic liberalism of the Manchester laissez-faire school.

As a young man he came under the influence of Friedrich Naumann, long a leader in the German Liberal movement. Heuss met pretty Elly Knapp in the Naumann movement ("If Naumann had turned Buddhist," she said later, "I would have followed him into that, too"). Heuss and Elly were married by their close friend Albert Schweitzer, later to become the great humanitarian missionary and philosopher (TiME, July 11).

Heuss's wife became a successful advertising woman, was able to support them when the Nazis froze Heuss out of teaching jobs. Now, grey-haired and grandmotherly, she will have to be the mistress of the ugly, boxlike presidential mansion at Bad Godesberg. Said Heuss of this German White House: "I can always draw up before the main entrance in my presidential Mercedes, leave by the kitchen, and then drive back to my furnished room in Bonn in my own little car."

In with a Smile

Herr Heuss's first official act as President of Germany was to nominate Konrad Adenauer, leader of the largest (Christian Democratic) party, as Chancellor. When ratification came up for vote in the Bundestag, Adenauer squeaked through by one vote--he needed 202 of the 402 votes, and he got 202. It was a shaky start for the new coalition regime consisting of Adenauer's Christian Democrats, Heuss's Free Democratic Party and the small German Party.

Adenauer would have to combat the big Social Democratic Party, led by rambunctious Kurt Schumacher and shrewd Carlo Schmid. He knew well what was ahead. After the hairline confirmation vote, a photographer asked him to smile. "Aber gern [Be glad to]," Adenauer replied, "for soon I may not have any more reason for smiling."

* Gandhi favored Hindustani, a combination of Hindi and Urdu. The creation of Pakistan, where Urdu is proposed as the official language, dispelled the dream.

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