WEST GERMANY: Spreading the Wealth

In the warmth of spring, the Mercedes, BMWs and Opels streaming along the Autobahnen have to dodge ever more midget cars of workers, piled high with blanket rolls and suitcases, headed for weekend campsites along the Rhine. The West German Hausfrau roams through gleaming supermarkets to choose such exotic imports as avocado pears and Chinese litchi nuts, along with the regular order of Wurst. Her leather-jacketed, blue-jeaned offspring, the Americanized German youth, seeks his fun in ice cream shops or "Jazz Bar'' record stores, or atop his own noisy motorbike.

Fourteen years after the war, his nation restored to world...

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