Another Symptom
• The appearance of gentlemen called Oberlaender and Preusker in the administration of the Federal Republic is one symptom of a return to normality. The strikes in Hamburg and Bavaria are another. For nearly ten years, the German worker and the German calkalist have worked—and worked- to rebuild the debris that Hitler left behind. They have succeeded and both of them have managed to become tolerably fat in the process (the capitalist has grown the fatter, but, owing to a degree of co-determination in industry, not outrageously so). • During all these ten years, there has been no major strike movement in Western Germany. Those who stiil see Hitlers under every bed may nervously recall that it was strikes—and unemployment—that brought Hitler in. But they might sustain themselves by asking whether it would not be even more sinister if Germany remained in a posture of tense pre- occupation with its reconstruction for an indefinite period after its reconstruction had been achieved The theology of the current strikes is the workers' demand to have a larger share in the prosperity—nothing to do with unemployment —that they have helped to create. And, since only 55 per cent. of the national income in Western Germany goes into private con- sumption as compared with more than 67 per cent. in this country, and since the German worker has to work a great deal harder than his British opposite number to achieve a compar- able standard of living, and since the British exporter does not find it so easy to compete with German exporters, there seems to be something to be said for some rise in German wages.
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