Here’s What to Watch for in Germany’s Election This Weekend

As Germany goes to the polls this weekend, I am reminded of a slogan used by Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor of West Germany, in his 1957 re-election campaign: Keine Experimente! (“No Experiments!”). It was his way of cautioning the electorate to avoid taking risks on untested parties and politicians and to stick with the steady postwar stability Adenauer and his party were offering.

Adenaeur’s admonition seems to be animating almost all of the major parties involved in this year’s German election—not only those that are usually lumped into the “conservative” camp,...