West Germany: They Are the Product of a Broker's Home

For many Germans, Ash Wednesday holds an extra measure of solemnity. It marks the end of the gay Fasching season, about the only time of the year when a middle-aged widower or a plain, bespectacled spinster can break out of the everyday litany of loneliness and—who knows? —find true love across a crowded beer hall. Of those who were still lonely as Fasching ended last week, many would not wait for next year's festivities; they will turn instead to one of West Germany's 200 marriage agencies, such as the booming "Institute for Elegant Individual Marriage Initiation." Chirped Bonn...