Adenauer, Konrad

b. 1876; d. 1967

German statesman, educated at Freiburg, Munich, and Bonn universities. He became a lawyer in Cologne, was deputy-mayor in 1906, senior deputy-mayor, 1909, and lord mayor, 1917-33. He was again lord mayor of Cologne, 1945, but was dismissed by the Allied Military Government in 1946. A prominent member of the Centre party (Catholic), he was dismissed from all his offices by Goering in 1933 and was imprisoned on political grounds for short periods by the Nazis in 1933 and 1944. He remained out of public life during the Nazi regime.

After the Second World War Adenauer was a foundation member of the Christian Democratic Union party, and its president in the British zone of Germany, 1946-48. He represented North Rhine-Westphalia in the parliamentary council of the three Western Zones, 1948-49, being president of the parliamentary council for most of this period. In the elections held in the newly-created Federal German Republic in August 1949 Adenauer's party gained most seats in the Bundestag, and, by allying with other small groups, had a clear majority over its principal opponents, the Social Democrats. The following month Adenauer was elected first chancellor of the Federal Republic by the Bundestag. He combined the office with that of foreign minister. In the elections of 1953 the Christian Democratic Union increased their representation and Adenauer was re-elected chancellor. He relinquished the post of foreign minister in 1955.

Adenauer visited Moscow in 1955, as a result of which diplomatic relations were established between Federal Germany and the USSR and several thousand German prisoners, still held in the Soviet Union, sent home. He was a staunch advocate of Federal Germany's participation in the defence of Western Europe, and in 1955 the Republic joined both NATO and Western Union. From 1958 onwards Adenauer strove to make his country a dominant force in the European Economic Community, and after de Gaulle was restored to power in France, he worked with him to obtain closer links between both countries, and effort culminating in the 'reconciliation treaty' signed in Paris in January 1963.

Adenauer was criticised in some quarters for allowing Germany to be France's junior partner in Europe; and in home affairs, his authoritarianism, coupled with incidents such as the Der Spiegel affair in 1962 (which caused a major government reshuffle) and his generally cool relations with Brandt of Berlin, tarnished both his own and his party's image. He retired from the chancellorship in October 1963, being succeeded by Ludwig Erhard, but remained chairman of the Christian Democratic Union until 1966.

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