The Candidates Helmut Kohl Gerhard Schroeder The Issues Unemployment Welfare Taxes Crime Immigration Education European Union The Parties CDU/CSU SPD The Greens FDP PDS Others

A Reporter's Notebook
By CNN International Anchor Bettina Lüscher
Special to CNN Interactive

In this story:

• Sow stomachs and guarantee cards
• New management, not old traditions
• Unification and unemployment
• The 'Schroeder effect'

BERLIN (CNN) -- "Is Kohl a feeling?"

That was the quirky question posed recently when a few journalists and comedians met to discuss Germany in year 16 of Helmut Kohl's reign of power.

At least one of the jokesters, who made a career out of imitating the 600-pound gorilla of German politics, seemed worn out by Kohl and his political longevity.

The comedian apparently had tired of his own stand-up shtick and needed serious prodding to do one more parody of Kohl and his southwestern dialect, his grumbling voice, his look to the ceiling when he talks.

But it was also apparent that over the years, Kohl has earned a grudging respect by those who often have ridiculed him.

A whole generation of voters has never lived under another chancellor. All they have ever come to know is the West's longest-ruling leader.

So, is Helmut Kohl a feeling -- something more than chancellor, perhaps a German state of mind?

Sow stomachs and guarantee cards

Since Kohl became chancellor in 1982, he has shared his favorite dish, sow stomach, with U.S. Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton; had tea with British Prime Ministers Thatcher, Major and Blair; and watched Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernyenko, Gorbachev and Yeltsin occupy the Kremlin.

But now there is a yearning for change. Some two-thirds of German voters believe a change is necessary. People say somewhat vaguely, "We need something new," without specifying what it is they're after.

The chancellor of unity, who guided Germany from decades of division to a united European powerhouse, is fighting the political fight of his life. For the first time since World War II, a sitting chancellor might be voted out of office.

The opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) is handing out a "guarantee card" with a photo of challenger Gerhard Schroeder.

"I'm giving you nine good reasons to vote for the SPD," the card says. "The 10th is Kohl."

Schroeder, the SPD's first real hope for victory in years, is appealing to this underlying demand for something new -- anything new.

He offers "the new middle," trying to capture the voters between Kohl's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the SPD.

New management, not old traditions

Schroeder and his designated economics minister Jost Stollmann, a miniature German version of Bill Gates, want to move the country toward a new level of modern society -- high-tech, cyber-savvy, cutting edge once again. Maybe they are looking for a new kind of Wirtschaftswunder, the "economic miracle" of postwar Germany.

Schroeder says the current mild upswing in the economy is "my upswing" -- triggered by a new confidence that things will be better once he is chancellor.

But Schroeder also wants to reverse some of the hard-fought social cutbacks made by Kohl's government that were designed to shrink the chronic budget deficit. Many Germans hope he will ease some of the economic pain they are suffering.

But skepticism is widespread. Half of the voters do not think the next government, whether it's led by Schroeder or Kohl, will be able to solve the country's burning problems.

The daily newspaper Berlin Zeitung exclaimed sarcastically, "No visions, please," and wondered why there were no great ideas in the battle for who will lead Germany into the next millennium. But maybe no one expects great, stirring ideas.

Another paper wrote, "Wanted -- a manager." And maybe that's what modern leaders can offer: no more warm, cozy feelings of traditional party ties, but a management style above the fray of smoke-filled rooms.

Unification and unemployment

Researchers have found that the historic attachment to the people's parties is disappearing. The old line, "My father is a worker and I too will vote for the Social Democrats," isn't heard much anymore.

Germany at the end of the 20th century is like many other modern societies -- with a mobile, more anonymous lifestyle; a work environment increasingly connected to a global economy; and uncertain job prospects instead of lifelong employment with one company.

Add to that the upheaval of unification and the economic turmoil in its aftermath: Hundreds of billions were poured from West to East, and hundreds of companies in the East were shut down -- while others were modernized to high-tech standards.

Now Germany is grappling with more than 4 million unemployed workers and many blame Kohl's Christian Democrats for it.

When Kohl's anointed heir, Wolfgang Schaeuble, recently met citizens in the former East Berlin, he heard tough words.

"You have no idea what is happening here," one middle-aged man said, explaining that extreme right-wing parties and the Party of Democratic Socialism, the successor to the old Communist Party, get all the voter sympathy on his street.

The CDU is fighting an uphill battle in the East. Once Kohl was the creator of unity; now many blame him for not creating the blooming landscapes he once predicted.

The 'Schroeder effect'

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But does Schroeder have a better standing with the "Ossies" -- the Easterners?

Some observers don't think so. They say Schroeder is even more Western than Kohl -- that in the East he does not have the mass appeal he enjoys in the West, where pollsters speak of the "Schroeder effect."

What is the Schroeder effect? The SPD nominated the man who continuously led in popularity in German opinion polls.

Not necessarily beloved by his party, now eyed with suspicion over some of his Cabinet choices should he win on September 27, Schroeder nevertheless showed his people he could deliver the votes.

His hunger for power -- a trait he shares with Kohl -- is legendary, and he already has checked out the construction site of the future home of the chancellor in Berlin -- including the child's room that Kohl insisted should be built.

It would be quite convenient for Schroeder, who with his fourth wife and her child might be one of the many Bonners to move to Germany's old and new capital next year.

Maybe that's what Germans are looking for: something fresh, something young, something modern -- a different kind of feeling.