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Ten Cigarettes, One Cigar. The Cause is what remains of life for Kurt Schumacher. He has no hobbies, no social friends, little taste or strength for recreation. His home above the Rhine (originally built for a polio victim) has an elevator to carry him from his upstairs bedroom to his downstairs study, and a terrace where on sunny days he reads, dashes off memos and receives a steady stream of callers who come for inspiration, discipline or orders. A lively boxer named Ajax sits at his feet; a charming German widow of 32 is secretary, nurse and traveling companion. "I have no private life," explains Frau Annemarie Ren-ger, who grew up with Socialism, lost her husband in the war and came to Kurt Schumacher offering to be "his right arm and left leg." She watches over his smoking (ten denicotinized cigarettes and one cigar a day) and his rest (ten to twelve hours a day).
In his austere, lonely dedication, Kurt Schumacher manipulates a party and directs a force that will last after his own broken body and strong will give out. To the men who know and work for him, he is neither the dangerous rabble-rouser nor neo-nationalist he seems, but a savior of Germany. They excuse his violent speeches. Often, they say, he will descend from a rostrum shaking his head and murmuring, "Well, I believe that I was again somewhat too sharp." His byword, they insist, is not nein, but ja, aber so nicht—which means "yes, but not this way." Schumacher himself professes to be hurt that the West misunderstands him so. Can't they see that his party is pure, and that the big Ruhr industrialists who once helped Hitler are the men behind Adenauer? He is convinced that the allies favored Adenauer because he is more tractable and conservative: What can you expect of the Wall Street lawyers and bankers who have run the occupation? "I wouldn't be a pleasant bedfellow," he once told a U.S. official, "but I would be more dependable." U.S. officials are skeptical.
Man in the Way. On the course the West has chosen, Kurt Schumacher is the Man in the Way. For four years the West has labored to build a wall to contain Communism. The German peace contract would complete that wall in Europe, the European Army give the West means to defend it. Schumacher, with his obstructionist "Yes, but" hopes to defeat both plans. Why? "We are neither Russians nor Americans nor Britons nor Frenchmen," he says. "We are Germans. We in Germany promote neither Russian nor American nor British nor French policies. We promote German policies."
Once, when dedicated German Kurt Schumacher harangued the Bundestag, he was told: "Your time is up." "On the clock it may be, mein Herr" answered Schumacher. "But politically it is not."