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Barzel is also a fitness enthusiast. He frequently pops into a health club across from the chancellery in Bonn where he takes saunas and lounges nude under sun lamps. He often swims in the pool at the American Embassy Club, rippling the water with a powerful Australian crawl. He lives with his wife Kriemhild in a plain, modern home in neighboring Bad Godesberg. Their daughter Claudia, 23, a philosophy student, is working during the campaign at C.D.U. headquarters.
Barzel takes obvious delight in the cut-and-thrust of political battle; if his audiences are too friendly and attentive, he tends to lose some of his oratorical spark. In contrast to past C.D.U. leaders like Konrad Adenauer, who have been father figures to their countrymen, Barzel is the first to be a member of the under-50 generation—and that may partly explain the unease with which West Germans generally regard him. Barzel's strength lies instead in intelligence, political skill, and a driving —some say consuming—ambition.