The CDU leader from the Rhineland is elected Chancellor of West Germany.
Born in Cologne in 1876, the lawyer Konrad Adenauer joined the Centre Party, which had been set up to represent the interests of Roman Catholics in the officially Protestant German nation state. Becoming the mayor of his home town at the age of only 41, he remained in office until his removal by the Third Reich. Imprisoned several times after 1934, he maintained contacts with the anti-Nazi opposition but was not personally active in the resistance movement. With the CDU replacing the Centre Party after 1945 as a political home for all Christians, Adenauer was appointed President of the Parliamentary Council, which had been charged with drafting a constitution for a West German state. As the CDU candidate for chancellor in the first West German election, Adenauer campaigned for a social market economy and an alliance with the Western powers. The rival SPD, on the other hand, favoured a planned economy and neutrality as a step to rapid reunification.
After the CDU became the largest party in parliament, the Bundestag elected the 73-year-old Adenauer as chancellor on 15 September 1949 by a majority of one. Facing an acute housing shortage, the need to integrate millions of refugees and displaced persons, and a possible reparations bill, his government mastered its challenges, aided by the Marshall Plan and a post-war economic boom. The “Adenauer era” lasted until 1963, during which time its eponymous leader convinced the nation to rearm, achieved limited German sovereignty and set in train a policy of anti-Communism and European cooperation. The “Old Man”, as he was widely known, retired at the age of 87 and died four years later.
About the Deutschlandmuseum
An immersive and innovative interactive museum covering 2,000 years of German history
