The ceremony at Western Railway Station in Vienna last week recalled Austria's ancient grandeur. The Viennese Guards, clad in grey uniforms with silver fourra-geres, stood at attention as a trumpet blared. Beside them on the platform waited Austrian President Adolf Scharf and Chancellor Alfons Gorbach as the train slid in bearing West Germany's President Heinrich Liibke for a five-day state visit.
Not in 54 years had a German chief of state paid a formal call on Austria.* That was in 1908. when aging Emperor Franz Josef, surrounded by dragoons and hussars, stood on the same platform in plumed hat...