A Depressed Chancellor Resigns

For the past few months, rumors have buzzed through Bonn that a tired and discouraged Willy Brandt would soon resign as Chancellor. Yet West Germany, and indeed all of Western Europe, was caught by surprise last week when the 60-year-old leader abruptly announced that he was leaving office. The ostensible cause of his resignation was the scandal that followed last month's arrest of Guenter Guillaume, a close personal aide who confessed to being an East German spy. (TIME, May 6).

Brandt's reputation for personal integrity is sufficiently strong that he might have been able to weather the scandal by blaming aides who had hired Guillaume despite the warnings of German security police. But that would not have been Willy's way. In a two-paragraph handwritten letter of resignation to President Gustav Heinemann, Brandt declared: "I accept the political responsibility for negligence in connection with the Guillaume espionage affair."

Deputy Chancellor Walter Scheel, who is Foreign Minister and leader of the Free Democrats, which form the ruling coalition with Brandt's Social Democrats (S.P.D.), immediately assumed power as interim Chancellor. He will hold that office until this week, when the Bundestag, barring some unforeseen development, will elect Finance Minister Helmut Schmidt (see following story) as Brandt's successor. Scheel is also scheduled to be elected as successor to the retiring Heinemann.

Although it was past midnight Monday when Brandt's resignation was announced, more than 150 torch-bearing Social Democratic Party members marched up to Brandt's house on the Venusberg overlooking Bonn. Placing candles before its heavy iron gate, they took up a silent vigil, broken only by occasional shouts of "Willy! Stay in office!" The following day, tens of thousands of Brandt supporters marched through cities across Germany--Hamburg, Frankfurt, Hannover, West Berlin, Bonn. Telegrams urging the Chancellor to reconsider flooded S.P.D. headquarters.

When he went to the Bundestag to say farewell to S.P.D. deputies, Brandt was greeted by roaring cheers and applause, and was given a bouquet of red roses. One of his closest aides collapsed into sobs. Brandt had threatened to quit many times before, but friends believe that his decision is now irrevocable. He intends, however, to remain chairman of the S.P.D. and to continue to speak out on political matters.

Brandt's resignation confused his followers as much as it grieved them. It was hard for them to believe that he would give up his high office simply because of the spy scandal, even though Guillaume had had access to secret NATO documents and other sensitive matters. There were rumors, given wide circulation by the anti-Brandt newspapers of Axel Springer, that Guillaume had gathered data about indiscretions in Brandt's private life and had attempted to blackmail the Chancellor. One such unsubstantiated story: Brandt in the early 1950s had an affair with an East German woman who was paid $125,000 by a West German intelligence agent when she threatened to tell all about the liaison.

Guillaume, according to the rumors, had said that he would release his information unless Brandt let him return to East Germany without extensive interrogation. In a national television address, Brandt attempted to quash these reports, but only added to the confusion when he said: "There were indications that my private life was to be pulled into the speculation on the spy case. It is grotesque to think that a German Chancellor can be blackmailed. In any case, I cannot be."

Personal Betrayal. Most experts believe that the spy scandal was the proximate cause rather than the real reason for the resignation. Ever since his electoral triumph in November 1972, when the Social Democrats won 45.8% of the vote and emerged as the Bundestag's largest party for the first time in history, the Chancellor has faced a series of disappointments.

During the campaign, Brandt promised major reforms in education and taxation policy, and an increase in worker representation on the supervisory boards of industrial firms. Largely because the economically conservative Free Democrats objected to these measures, Brandt has not been able to make good on a single election promise. This in turn has made him a target of the radical Juso (Young Socialist) wing of the S.P.D. Last winter's oil crisis and mounting inflation (current rate: 7.8%) compounded Brandt's problems, as did a series of strikes earlier this year by public service employees and the metalworkers. The strikes ended only after the government agreed to grant wage increases of up to 14%, thus violating its own 10% pay-hike guidelines. Socialist Brandt, who considers himself a friend of the working man, felt personally betrayed when the unions did not moderate their demands as he had asked.

An indifferent administrator who much prefers to grapple with big foreign policy issues, Brandt began to feel swamped by his seemingly uncontrollable domestic problems. In January, reports TIME'S Bonn Bureau Chief Bruce Nelan, "Brandt began to talk to intimates about resigning. He had sunk into a deep depression, viewing the world and its future in near-apocalyptical terms. Diplomats in Bonn began reporting the Chancellor's lethargy and lack of drive. The opposition Christian Democratic Union increased its charges that Germany was leaderless."

The Chancellor has sunk into fits of melancholy before, but this time the image of a listless Brandt took its toll at the polls. In a series of state and city elections, the S.P.D. suffered setbacks ranging from 6% to 10%, compared with 1970. Experts were predicting that the Socialists would lose a June 9 election in the state of Lower Saxony, even though Brandt has promised to campaign there personally. The most Europe-minded of the Continent's leaders, he was also saddened by the insistence of Britain's new Labor government that it would "renegotiate" the terms on which it entered the Common Market. Nor could he draw much comfort from Ostpolitik, the pride of his term. As exchanges between East and West slowed, critics accused Brandt of having given away more to the Communists than he had obtained. Brandt was thus already very close to giving up the chancellorship when Guillaume was arrested.

Helmut Schmidt must attempt to pull the Social Democrats out of their tailspin after he takes the oath of Chancellor next week. He has his task well cut out for him. The urgent problems that depressed Brandt have not gone away. Moreover, a public opinion poll released last week showed that voter preference for the S.P.D. is at an all-time low of 21%; only 7% favor the Free Democrats, while 62% support the Christian Democrats. Schmidt and the Social Democrats are lucky that they do not have to face another national election until the fall of 1976.

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