Fight not over for Schroeder

FOR the past half-century, Germany has had a hard time getting it right. If it adopted a high-profile role in international politics to go with its economic strength, it evoked memories of Adolf Hitler and World War II. If it kept quiet and got on with business, it was attacked as a political pygmy.

German reunification 10 years ago was right and inevitable. But the economic cost has been enormous, and the notion of a resurgent, united nation of 80 million people in the middle of Europe can only cause some sleepless nights to its neighbours.

Above all, Germany has lived for 50 years with the evil of its Nazi past. Visit an historic, cultural town like Goethe's Weimar and there on a nearby hill stand the remains of a concentration camp.

Last September, Germany was supposed to have broken free with the election of a Social Democratic government whose oldest members had only been children during the Hitler years. With centre-left governments in power in Britain and France, the stage seemed set for sensible, reformist, business-friendly governance in Europe's three most important nations.

That background makes last week's events in the federal capital of Bonn all the more amazing. Less than six months after the Social Democrats' victory, the abrupt departure of their party leader, who was also the country's finance and economics supremo, was greeted with glee.

The German stock market rose by five per cent in a day. The new euro currency immediately strengthened. The head of the German Employers' Association looked forward to a new beginning. The British Government celebrated. While nothing was said officially, there must have been similar satisfaction in Washington.