Since the days when Hitler opted for guns rather than butter, West Germany has known near-starvation, austerity and, for the past decade, such heady abundance that today it has become the Adipose Society. Following the early '50s, when the postwar boom set off what Germans call the Edelfresswelle, the gorgeous gobbling wave, buttocks and bosoms have expanded even more rapidly than the economy, and doctors have recognized two universal ailments: Doppelkinnepidemie, double-chin epidemic, and Hängebauch, or bellyhang. The majority of Germans, from newborn babes to Cabinet ministers, are fatter today than at any other time in this century. A top dietetic authority estimates that 20% of all West Germans are overweight. In a new book titled Grow Thin, but How?, Dr. Andreas Duttler warns: "Corpulence is the dark side of the Economic Miracle."
Rearguard Action. The explosion of vital statistics is amply evident from the island of Sylt, where pneumatic nudists jounce across the beaches, to the Spanish coastline, where bulgy Brünnhildes have already made the authorities regret their decision not to enforce a longtime ban on bikinis. West Germany's men's wear industry in recent years has had to add a new clothing classification, tactfully dubbed Boss or Manager size; nearly a quarter of all new clothes are now bought by customers of managerial girth, while sales of "normal" sizes are diminishing.
French garment manufacturers who export to Germany sell a higher proportion of jumbo sizes (16 to 18) there than anywhere else. In most other countries, also, well-buttressed women steer clear of such revealing clothes as stretch ski pants; in West Germany, according to the world-girdling Bogner stretch-pants concern, there is a steady demand for slipcover sizes.
Many German women are fighting a determined rearguard action, nonetheless. Sales of foundation garments have quadrupled since 1950, and slimming parlors have become almost as thick as Germany's beloved whipped cream. In Bonn, where a session at the stylish Salon der Figur ranges from $6 for a plump pubescent to $125 for a well-marbled dowager, Owner Helga Pietsch sighs: "Ninety percent of the German women who come in here don't even know what a calorie is."