World: I’m All Right, Hans

The Oberleutnant stares grimly at his wristwatch as machine-gun bullets twang overhead. A flare picks out highlights on the jackboots and bayonets of his -waiting assault troops. Then, with a wave of his Luger: “Vorwärts!” But the troops have been staring at their watches, too. Instead of charging, they march off—out of step—toward the canteen. “It’s coffee-break time,” says the squad leader to the Oberleutnant. “Take it up with the shop steward.”

Soldiers in labor unions? The very idea would be enough to set Clausewitz cackling in his grave. Yet last week unionization of the West German army was proceeding apace—with the approval of both Bonn and the Bundeswehr. At a meeting with West German labor leaders in Baden this month, Army Inspector General Josef Moll put his blessing on the union. “My presence,” he declared, “proves to you that we generals recognize the constitutional right of soldiers to organize in labor unions.”

P.S.T. & T.W.U. (S.S.). It was indeed a turning point in German history. Ever since 1713, when Frederick William I forged the Prussian army into “a state within a state,” the German military has looked harshly on labor. Army bayonets cut down the demonstrating workers in 1848; army rifle butts broke strikes in the years that followed. Even after the defeat of World War II, German officers retained their antilabor sentiment, labeled union organizing efforts “contradictory to the principle of command and obedience.” In August, Christian Democratic Defense Minister Kai-Uwe von Hassel knuckled under to labor pressure and permitted the Public Service, Transport and Traffic Workers Union (Soldiers Section) to begin recruiting in Bundeswehr barracks. That caused two top generals to resign (TIME, Sept. 2) and widened the fissure in the C.D.U.

Today, some 3,500 of West Germany’s 438,000 officers and enlisted men—including four generals—are dues-paying members of the soldiers’ union. By 1968, the P.S.T. & T.W.U. (S.S.) expects to have as many as 15,000 members on its roster. So much for command and obedience.

Healthy Sign? What can the union do for the Soldaten? “We demand better pay,” snaps Union Leader Willi Zimmermann, 48. He explains that a German sergeant with five years’ service draws only $150 a month (v. $270 for his U.S. counterpart), and is seeking $40 a month more. Zimmermann also demands “easier” promotion, more recreational facilities, increased health coverage, and a pension plan equivalent to that of civil servants. Fair enough within the framework of current union de mands, but Zimmermann goes further. “It is ridiculous,” he says, “for a highly trained soldier to perform menial tasks like guard duty.”

Zimmermann insists that a unionized army would be as strong as any other. As in any civil servants’ union, he explained, it would be forbidden to strike. Indeed, its advocates argue the unionization of the army is a healthy sign that democracy has taken root. But what happens if war breaks out during the annual negotiations for a new contract? A 60-day cooling-off period? In officers’ mess halls throughout West Germany, the whole idea still produces shudders of horror. After all, the only other unionized armies in Europe are those of Austria and Scandinavia.