The reporters waiting impatiently outside a caucus room in the Bundestag last week could only guess at the events inside. Then, suddenly, a rhythmic wave of stamping feet told them that the Bundestag delegates of West Germany's ruling Christian Democratic Union had elected a new candidate for Chancellor. Moments later, C.D.U. backbenchers rushed out with the news: the man was Kurt Georg Kiesinger, 62, the silver-haired Minister President of the southwestern state of Baden-WUrttemberg.
Kiesinger's predecessor, Ludwig Erhard, had been shunted aside unceremoniously. Lost was Erhard's own chance to rebuild the coalition...
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