The Right Road in Germany

West Germany's government took another stride toward making good on Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard's belief that a free-enterprising government should not be in big business. On public sale fortnight ago went a sizable block of stock in one of the 300 nationalized companies inherited by the government after World War II: 300,000 shares of the big (1958 sales estimate: $178 million) Preussag mining combine, whose activities range from coal mining to oil refining. The government took the step with some misgivings: a 1958 poll seemed to indicate that 40% of all Germans had little knowledge of stock, and presumably little interest. The doubts were groundless. The shares were snapped up so fast that the Bonn government decided last week to allot an additional 530,000 shares to subscribers.

A big part of the success was due to the government's happy idea of "Volkskapitalisten" (people's capitalists), and spreading the stock among as many people as possible. Purchasers were limited to five shares apiece; only those with incomes of less than $3,810 a year could subscribe. By tempting the purses of middle-class citizens, the government hopes both to keep them from socialism and to tap the $9.3 billion West Germans have locked up in small savings accounts. The next issue will probably be the giant Viag heavy-industry holding company (coal, aluminum, steel, copper, electric power). By next year the government hopes to get legal complications out of the way, sell Germany's famed Volkswagen company to small stockholders. Said Economics Minister Erhard: "The successful issue of People's Shares is a milestone in our economic history and marks the beginning of the end of class struggle, which divided capital and labor into two hostile camps. We are on the right road."

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