Ever since the Weimar Republic, with its short-lived Cabinets and chronic crises, collapsed in the face of Nazism, Germans have worried about their ability to build a stable, democratic political system. The latest political crisis to confront the Federal Republic should do much to allay those fears. Less than two weeks after Willy Brandt stunned his countrymen by suddenly resigning as Chancellor, a new government was functioning smoothly in Bonn. Last Thursday, in the modern and austere Bundestag chambers, Social Democrat Helmut Schmidt, 55, took the oath as West Germany's fifth Chancellor.
Schmidt, the former Finance Minister, apportioned the seats...
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