Source
/On a meadow of ruins
the economic miracle tree
grows deep in the ground.
It is not a tree growing in paradise,
but it bears fruit and is healthy.
We know the gardeners who tend it,
Erhard with his firm hand
and Schäffer, who rakes in the profits
and distributes them throughout the land.
Well, look who's here!
For almost eight years they have
watered and tended the tree,
and everyone has experienced it firsthand,
that it bears fruit for them.
That annoys the gardener of the cooperative,
and he lets it be known.
His commentary on everything
is loud and not very flattering:
[Ollenhauer]: "Better economic policy!"
He demands this, demands that,
and he promises and proclaims
that he will plant the tree of paradise
in Germany when he is in power.
[Ollenhauer]: "More money and less taxes!"
Even the balloon is inflating,
that's how much he promises us.
[Ollenhauer]: "Security for all!"
He criticizes circumstances
with an old pop song.
It is the mirage from the old legends
of the tree that grows into the sky.
It gets thicker and thicker,
until it floats away, the balloon.
And the moral of the story:
Don't expect anything from a dream,
because if it bursts, it's gone,
but the tree stands unshaken.
Source:
"Der Wirtschafts-Wunder-Baum.“ CDU Election Campaign Ad, 1957.
Courtesy of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. ACDP,
10-100-0042
https://www.konrad-adenauer.de/quellen/videos/