For nearly 36 years, West German viewers tuned in to Der Internationale Fruhschoppen, a weekly program that brought journalists together to discuss current events. Last week the old standby was gone. It had been canceled because Host Werner Hofer, 74, perhaps West Germany's best-known media personality, was forced to resign over charges that he had shown pro-Nazi sympathies during World War II.
The flap began when the news magazine Der Spiegel published a story suggesting that early in his career Hofer wrote articles approving of Nazi policies, including the 1943 execution of Pianist Karlrobert Kreiten. Hofer had twice before publicly and...