Konrad Adenauer
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Konrad Adenauer

Konrad Adenauer
Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F078072-0004, Konrad Adenauer.jpg
Adenauer in June 1952
Chancellor of West Germany

15 September 1949 - 11 October 1963[1]
Vice Chancellor
Office established
Ludwig Erhard
Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs

15 March 1951 - 6 June 1955
Office established
Heinrich von Brentano
Leader of the Christian Democratic Union

1 March 1946 - 23 March 1966
Office established
Ludwig Erhard
President of the Parliamentary Council

1 September 1948 - 23 May 1949
Office established
Office abolished
Mayor of Cologne

4 May 1945 - 6 October 1945
Willi Suth
Willi Suth

13 October 1917 - 13 March 1933
Max Wallraf
Günter Riesen
President of the Prussian State Council

7 May 1921 - 26 April 1933
Minister President
Office re-established
Robert Ley
Member of the Bundestag for Bonn

7 September 1949 - 19 April 1967
Constituency established
Alo Hauser
Personal details
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer

(1876-01-05)5 January 1876
Cologne, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died19 April 1967(1967-04-19) (aged 91)
Bad Honnef, West Germany
Resting placeWaldfriedhof ("Forest Cemetery"), Rhöndorf
Political party
  • Emma Weyer (1904-1916)
  • Auguste Zinsser (1919-1948)
Alma mater

Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (German: ['k?n?a:t '?a:d?na] ; 5 January 1876 - 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a Christian democratic party he co-founded, which under his leadership became the dominant force in the country.

A devout Roman Catholic and member of the Catholic Centre Party, Adenauer was a leading politician in the Weimar Republic, serving as Mayor of Cologne (1917-1933) and as president of the Prussian State Council (1922-1933).

In the early years of the Federal Republic he switched focus from denazification to recovery and led his country from the ruins of World War II to becoming a productive and prosperous nation that forged close relations with France, the United Kingdom and the United States.[2] During his years in power, West Germany achieved democracy, stability, international respect and economic prosperity ("Wirtschaftswunder", German for "economic miracle").[3]

Adenauer belied his age by his intense work habits and his uncanny political instinct. He displayed a strong dedication to a broad vision of market-based liberal democracy and anti-communism. A shrewd and strategic politician, Adenauer was deeply committed to a Western-oriented foreign policy and restoring the position of West Germany on the world stage. He worked to restore the West German economy from the destruction of World War II to a central position in Europe, presiding over the German Economic Miracle together with his Minister of Economics, Ludwig Erhard, and a driving force in re-establishing national military forces (the Bundeswehr) and intelligence services (the Bundesnachrichtendienst) in West Germany in 1955 and 1956. Adenauer opposed recognition of rival German Democratic Republic or the Oder-Neisse line, skillfully used in electoral campaigns against the SPD - more sympathetic to co-existence with the GDR and the post-war borders - and made West Germany a member of NATO. Although also a proponent of European unity, Adenauer pursued strong Atlanticist links with the United States as counterbalance to France, a strong military and nuclear power by the end of his term.

Adenauer, who resigned as Chancellor at age 87 and remained head of the governing CDU until his retirement at 90, was often dubbed "Der Alte" ("the old one"). British politician and historian Roy Jenkins says he was "the oldest statesman ever to function in elected office." He remains the oldest head of government for a major country in modern European history.[4]

The Cologne years

Early life and education

Adenauer in 1896

Konrad Adenauer was born as the third of five children of Johann Konrad Adenauer (1833-1906) and his wife Helene (née Scharfenberg; 1849-1919) in Cologne, Rhenish Prussia, on 5 January 1876.[5] His siblings were August (1872-1952), Johannes (1873-1937), Lilli (1879-1950) and Elisabeth, who died shortly after birth in c. 1880. One of the formative influences of Adenauer's youth was the Kulturkampf, an experience that as related to him by his parents left him with a lifelong dislike for "Prussianism", and led him like many other Catholic Rhinelanders of the 19th century to deeply resent the Rhineland's inclusion in Prussia.[6]

In 1894, he completed his Abitur and began studying law and politics at the universities of Freiburg, Munich and Bonn. In 1896, at the age of 20, he was mustered for the Prussian army, but did not pass the physical exam due to chronic respiratory problems he had experienced since childhood. He was a member of several Roman Catholic students' associations under the K.St.V. Arminia Bonn in Bonn. He graduated in 1900,[5] and afterwards worked as a lawyer at the court in Cologne.[7]

Leader in Cologne

In Wilhelmshaven in 1928, when a new cruiser was given the name of Köln (Cologne), home city of Adenauer (centre, with left hand visible, next to him Lieutenant-General Wilhelm Groener and Gustav Noske)

As a devout Catholic, he joined the Centre Party (German: Deutsche Zentrumspartei or just Zentrum) in 1906 and was elected to Cologne's city council in the same year. In 1909, he became Vice-Mayor of Cologne, an industrial metropolis with a population of 635,000 in 1914. Avoiding the extreme political movements that attracted so many of his generation, Adenauer was committed to bourgeois decency, diligence, order, Christian morals and values, and was dedicated to rooting out disorder, inefficiency, irrationality and political immorality.[8] From 1917 to 1933, he served as Mayor of Cologne and became a member of the Prussian House of Lords.

Adenauer headed Cologne during World War I, working closely with the army to maximize the city's role as a rear base of supply and transportation for the Western Front. He paid special attention to the civilian food supply, enabling the residents to avoid the worst of the severe shortages that beset most German cities during 1918-19.[9] In 1918, he invented a soy-based sausage called the Cologne sausage to help feed the city.[10][11] In the face of the collapse of the old regime and the threat of revolution and widespread disorder in late 1918, Adenauer maintained control in Cologne using his good working relationship with the Social Democrats. In a speech on 1 February 1919 Adenauer called for the dissolution of Prussia, and for the Prussian Rhineland to become a new autonomous Land (state) in the Reich.[12] Adenauer claimed this was the only way to prevent France from annexing the Rhineland.[12] Both the Reich and Prussian governments were completely against Adenauer's plans for breaking up Prussia.[13] When the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were presented to Germany in June 1919, Adenauer again suggested to Berlin his plan for an autonomous Rhineland state and again his plans were rejected by the Reich government.[14]

He was mayor during the postwar British occupation. He established a good working relationship with the British military authorities, using them to neutralize the workers' and soldiers' council that had become an alternative base of power for the city's left wing.[15] During the Weimar Republic, he was president of the Prussian State Council (German: Preußischer Staatsrat) from 1921-33, which was the representation of the provinces of Prussia in its legislature. A major debate had occurred within the Zentrum since 1906 regarding the question of whether the Zentrum should "leave the tower" (i.e. allow Protestants to join to become a multi-faith party) or "stay in the tower" (i.e. continue to be a Catholic-only party). Adenauer was one of the leading advocates of "leaving the tower", which led to a dramatic clash between him and Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber at the 1922 Katholikentag, where the Cardinal publicly admonished Adenauer for wanting to take the Zentrum "out of the tower".[16]

In mid-October 1923, the Chancellor Gustav Stresemann announced that Berlin would cease all financial payments to the Rhineland and that the new Rentenmark, which had replaced the now worthless Mark would not circulate in the Rhineland.[17] To save the Rhineland economy, Adenauer opened talks with the French High Commissioner Paul Tirard in late October 1923 for a Rhenish republic in a sort of economic union with France which would achieve Franco-German reconciliation, which Adenauer called a "grand design".[18] At the same time, Adenauer clung to the hope that the Rentenmark might still circulate in the Rhineland. Adenauer's plans came to naught when Stresemann, who was resolutely opposed to Adenauer's "grand design", which he viewed as borderline treason, was able to negotiate an end to the crisis on his own.[18]

In 1926, the Zentrum suggested that Adenauer become Chancellor, an offer that he was interested in but ultimately rejected when the German People's Party insisted that one of the conditions for entering into a coalition under Adenauer's leadership was that Gustav Stresemann stay on as Foreign Minister.[19] Adenauer, who disliked Stresemann as "too Prussian," rejected that condition, which marked the end of his chance of becoming Chancellor in 1926.[20]

Years under the Nazi government



Adenauer was imprisoned for two days after the Night of the Long Knives on 30 June 1934; however, on 10 August 1934, maneuvering for his pension, he wrote a ten-page letter to Hermann Göring (the Prussian interior minister). He stated that as Mayor he had violated Prussian laws in order to allow NSDAP events in public buildings and Nazi flags to be flown from city flagpoles and that in 1932 he had declared publicly that the Nazis should join the Reich government in a leading role.[23][24] At the end of 1932, Adenauer had indeed demanded a joint government by his Zentrum party and the Nazis for Prussia.[25]


After World War II and the founding of the CDU

Adenauer in 1951, reading in his house in Rhöndorf he had built in 1937. It is now a museum.

Shortly after the war ended, the American occupation forces once again installed him as Mayor of Cologne, which had been heavily bombed. After the city was transferred into the British zone of occupation, however, the Director of its military government, General Gerald Templer, dismissed Adenauer for incompetence in December 1945.[26] The probable reason for this was that Adenauer considered the Germans the political equals of the occupying Allies, a view that Templer did not appreciate, resulting in his sacking.[27] Adenauer's dismissal by the British contributed much to his subsequent political success and allowed him to pursue a policy of alliance with the West in the 1950s without facing charges of being a "sell-out".

After being dismissed, Adenauer devoted himself to building a new political party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which he hoped would embrace both Protestants and Roman Catholics in a single party. According to Adenauer, a Catholic-only party would lead to German politics being dominated by anti-democratic parties yet again.[28] In January 1946, Adenauer initiated a political meeting of the future CDU in the British zone in his role as doyen (the oldest man in attendance, Alterspräsident) and was informally confirmed as its leader. During the Weimar Republic, Adenauer had often been considered a future Chancellor and after 1945, his claims for leadership were even stronger.[29] The other surviving Zentrum leaders were considered unsuitable for the tasks that lay ahead.[30]

Reflecting his background as a Catholic Rhinelander who had long chafed under Prussian rule, Adenauer believed that Prussianism was the root cause of National Socialism, and that only by driving out Prussianism could Germany become a democracy.[31] In a December 1946 letter, Adenauer wrote that the Prussian state in the early 19th century had become an "almost God-like entity" that valued state power over the rights of individuals.[31] Adenauer's dislike of Prussia even led him to oppose Berlin as a future capital.[32]

Adenauer viewed the most important battle in the postwar world as between the forces of Christianity and Marxism, especially Communism.[33] Marxism meant both the Communists and the Social Democrats as the latter were officially a Marxist party until the Bad Godesberg conference of 1959. The same anti-Marxist viewpoints led Adenauer to denounce the Social Democrats as the heirs to Prussianism and National Socialism.[34] Adenauer's ideology was at odds with many in the CDU, who wished to unite socialism and Christianity.[35] Adenauer worked diligently at building up contacts and support in the CDU over the following years, and he sought with varying success to impose his particular ideology on the party.

Adenauer's leading role in the CDU of the British zone won him a position at the Parliamentary Council of 1948, which had been called into existence by the Western Allies to draft a constitution for the three western zones of Germany. He was the chairman of this constitutional convention and vaulted from this position to being chosen as the first head of government once the new "Basic Law" had been promulgated in May 1949.

Chancellor of West Germany

First government



The Free Democrat Theodor Heuss was elected the first President of the Republic, and Adenauer was elected Chancellor (head of government) on 15 September 1949 with the support of his own CDU, the Christian Social Union, the liberal Free Democratic Party, and the right-wing German Party. It was said that Adenauer was elected Chancellor by the new German parliament by "a majority of one vote - his own".[36] At age 73, it was thought that Adenauer would only be a caretaker Chancellor.[37] However, he would go on to hold this post for 14 years, a period spanning most of the preliminary phase of the Cold War. During this period, the post-war division of Germany was consolidated with the establishment of two separate German states, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

In the controversial selection for a "provisional capital" of the Federal Republic of Germany, Adenauer championed Bonn over Frankfurt am Main. The British had agreed to detach Bonn from their zone of occupation and convert the area to an autonomous region wholly under German sovereignty; the Americans were not prepared to grant the same for Frankfurt.[38] He also resisted the claims of Heidelberg, which had better communications and had survived the war in better condition; partly because the Nazis had been popular there before they came to power and partly, as he said, because the world would not take them seriously if they set up their state in the city of The Student Prince.[]


In a speech on 20 September 1949, Adenauer denounced the entire denazification process pursued by the Allied military governments, announcing in the same speech that he was planning to bring in an amnesty law for the Nazi war criminals and he planned to apply to "the High Commissioners for a corresponding amnesty for punishments imposed by the Allied military courts".[39] Adenauer argued the continuation of denazification would "foster a growing and extreme nationalism" as the millions who supported the Nazi regime would find themselves excluded from German life forever.[40] By 31 January 1951, the amnesty legislation had benefited 792,176 people. They included 3,000 functionaries of the SA, the SS, and the Nazi Party who participated in dragging victims to jails and camps; 20,000 Nazis sentenced for "deeds against life" (presumably murder); 30,000 sentenced for causing bodily injury, and about 5,200 charged with "crimes and misdemeanors in office.[41]

The Adenauer government refused to accept the Oder-Neisse line as Germany's eastern frontier.[42] This refusal was in large part motivated by his desire to win the votes of expellees and right-wing nationalists to the CDU, which is why he supported Heimatrecht, i.e. the right of expellees to return to their former homes.[43] It was also intended to be a deal-breaker if negotiations ever began to reunite Germany on terms that Adenauer considered unfavorable such as the neutralization of Germany as Adenauer knew well that the Soviets would never revise the Oder-Neisse line.[43] Privately, Adenauer considered Germany's eastern provinces to be lost forever.[44]

Adenauer speaking in the Bundestag, 1955




After a year of negotiations, the Treaty of Paris was signed on 18 April 1951 establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. The treaty was unpopular in Germany where it was seen as a French attempt to take over German industry.[47] The treaty conditions were favorable to the French, but for Adenauer, the only thing that mattered was European integration.[48] Adenauer was keen to see Britain join the European Coal and Steel Community as he believed the more free-market British would counterbalance the influence of the more dirigiste French, and to achieve that purpose he visited London in November 1951 to meet with Prime Minister Winston Churchill.[49] Churchill said Britain would not join the European Coal and Steel Community because doing so would mean sacrificing relations with the U.S and Commonwealth.[50]


Adenauer in 1950 at the Ermekeil barracks in Bonn with Adolf Heusinger (right), one of the authors of the Himmerod memorandum

In 1950, a major controversy broke out when it emerged that Adenauer's State Secretary Hans Globke had played a major role in drafting anti-semitic Nuremberg Race Laws in Nazi Germany.[55] Adenauer kept Globke on as State Secretary as part of his strategy of integration.[56] Starting in August 1950, Adenauer began to pressure the Western Allies to free all of the war criminals in their custody, especially those from the Wehrmacht, whose continued imprisonment he claimed made West German rearmament impossible.[57] Adenauer had been opposed to the Nuremberg Trials in 1945-46, and after becoming Chancellor, he demanded the release of the so-called "Spandau Seven," as the seven war criminals convicted at Nuremberg and imprisoned at Spandau Prison were known.[58]

In October 1950, Adenauer received the so-called "Himmerod memorandum" drafted by four former Wehrmacht generals at the Himmerod Abbey that linked freedom for German war criminals as the price of German rearmament, along with public statements from the Allies that the Wehrmacht committed no war crimes in World War II.[59] The Allies were willing to do whatever necessary to get the much-needed German rearmament underway, and in January 1951, General Dwight Eisenhower, commander of NATO forces, issued a statement which declared the great majority of the Wehrmacht had acted honorably.[60]

On 2 January 1951, Adenauer met with the American High Commissioner, John J. McCloy, to argue that executing the Landsberg prisoners would ruin forever any effort at having the Federal Republic play its role in the Cold War.[61] In response to Adenauer's demands and pressure from the German public, McCloy on 31 January 1951 reduced the death sentences of most of the 102 men at Landsberg, hanging only 7 of the prisoners while the rest of those condemned to death were spared.[62]

By 1951 laws were passed by the Bundestag ending denazification. Denazification was viewed by the United States as counterproductive and ineffective, and its demise was not opposed.[63] Adenauer's intention was to switch government policy to reparations and compensation for the victims of Nazi rule (Wiedergutmachung).[64][65] Officials were allowed to retake jobs in civil service, with the exception of people assigned to Group I (Major Offenders) and II (Offenders) during the denazification review process.[65][66] Adenauer pressured his rehabilitated ex-Nazis by threatening that stepping out of line could trigger the reopening of individual de-Nazification prosecutions. The construction of a "competent Federal Government effectively from a standing start was one of the greatest of Adenauer's formidable achievements".[67]



Adenauer with Israeli President Zalman Shazar, 1966

Adenauer recognized the obligation of the West German government to compensate Israel, as the main representative of the Jewish people, for The Holocaust.[failed verification] West Germany started negotiations with Israel for restitution of lost property and the payment of damages to victims of Nazi persecution. In the Luxemburger Abkommen, West Germany agreed to pay compensation to Israel. Jewish claims were bundled in the Jewish Claims Conference, which represented the Jewish victims of Nazi Germany. West Germany then initially paid about 3 billion Mark to Israel and about 450 million to the Claims Conference, although payments continued after that, as new claims were made.[71] In the face of severe opposition both from the public and from his own cabinet, Adenauer was only able to get the reparations agreement ratified by the Bundestag with the support of the SPD.[72] Israeli public opinion was divided over accepting the money, but ultimately the fledgling state under David Ben-Gurion agreed to take it, opposed by more radical groups like Irgun, who were against such treaties. Those treaties were cited as a main reason for the assassination attempt by the radical Jewish groups against Adenauer.[73]

On 27 March 1952, a package addressed to Chancellor Adenauer exploded in the Munich Police Headquarters, killing one Bavarian police officer, Karl Reichert.[74] Investigations revealed the mastermind behind the assassination attempt was Menachem Begin, who would later become the Prime Minister of Israel.[75] Begin had been the commander of Irgun and at that time headed Herut and was a member of the Knesset. His goal was to put pressure on the German government and prevent the signing of the Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany, which he vehemently opposed.[76] The West German government kept all proof under seal in order to prevent antisemitic responses from the German public.

Second government

Man of the Year: Adenauer on the cover of Time (4 January 1954)

When the East German uprising of 1953 was harshly suppressed by the Red Army in June 1953, Adenauer took political advantage of the situation and was handily re-elected to a second term as Chancellor.[77] The CDU/CSU came up one seat short of an outright majority. Adenauer could thus have governed in a coalition with only one other party, but retained/gained the support of nearly all of the parties in the Bundestag that were to the right of the SPD. For all of his efforts as West Germany's leader, Adenauer was named Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1953. In 1954, he received the Karlspreis (English: Charlemagne Award), an award by the German city of Aachen to people who contributed to the European idea, European cooperation and European peace.

The German Restitution Laws (Bundesentschädigungsgesetz) were passed in 1953 that allowed some victims of Nazi prosecution to claim restitution.[78] Under the 1953 restitution law, those who had suffered for "racial, religious or political reasons" could collect compensation, which were defined in such a way as to sharply limit the number of people entitled to collect compensation.[79]

In the spring of 1954, opposition to the Pleven plan grew within the French National Assembly.[80] The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill told Adenauer that Britain would ensure that West German rearmament would happen, regardless if the National Assembly ratified the EDC treaty or not.[81] In August 1954, the Pleven plan died when an alliance of conservatives and Communists in the National Assembly joined forces to reject the EDC treaty under the grounds that West German rearmament in any form was an unacceptable danger to France.[82]

Signing the North Atlantic Treaty in Paris, 1954 (Adenauer at the left)

British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden used the failure of the EDC to argue for independent West German rearmament and West German NATO membership.[82] Thanks in part to Adenauer's success in rebuilding West Germany's image, the British proposal met with considerable approval.[82] In the ensuing London conference, Eden assisted Adenauer by promising the French that Britain would always maintain at least four divisions in the British Army of the Rhine as long as there was a Soviet threat, with the strengthened British forces also aimed implicitly against any German revanchism.[83] Adenauer then promised that Germany would never seek to have nuclear, chemical and biological weapons as well as capital ships, strategic bombers, long-range artillery, and guided missiles, although these promises were non-binding.[83] The French had been assuaged that West German rearmament would be no threat to France. Additionally, Adenauer promised that the West German military would be under the operational control of NATO general staff, though ultimate control would rest with the West German government; and that above all he would never violate the strictly defensive NATO charter and invade East Germany to achieve German reunification.[84]

Minister Blank and Adenauer with General Speidel inspect formations of the newly created Bundeswehr on 20 January 1955

In May 1955, West Germany joined NATO and in November a West German military, the Bundeswehr, was founded.[82] Though Adenauer made use of a number of former Wehrmacht generals and admirals in the Bundeswehr, he saw the Bundeswehr as a new force with no links to the past, and wanted it to be kept under civilian control at all times.[85] To achieve these aims, Adenauer gave a great deal of power to the military reformer Wolf Graf von Baudissin.[86]

In November 1954, Adenauer's lobbying efforts on behalf of the "Spandau Seven" finally bore fruit with the release of Konstantin von Neurath.[87] Adenauer congratulated Neurath on his release, sparking controversy all over the world.[88] At the same time, Adenauer's efforts to win freedom for Admiral Karl Dönitz ran into staunch opposition from the British Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office, Ivone Kirkpatrick, who argued Dönitz would be an active danger to German democracy.[89] Adenauer then traded with Kirkpatrick no early release for Admiral Dönitz with an early release for Admiral Erich Raeder on medical grounds.[90]



Nikita Khrushchev and other Soviet leaders greeting Adenauer in Moscow in September 1955

In return for the release of the last German prisoners of war in 1955, the Federal Republic established diplomatic relations with the USSR, but refused to recognize East Germany and broke off diplomatic relations with countries (e.g., Yugoslavia) that established relations with the East German régime.[93] Adenauer was also ready to consider the Oder-Neisse line as the German border in order to pursue a more flexible policy with Poland but he did not command sufficient domestic support for this, and opposition to the Oder-Neisse line continued, causing considerable disappointment among Adenauer's Western allies.[94]

In 1956, during the Suez Crisis, Adenauer fully supported the Anglo-French-Israeli attack on Egypt, arguing to his Cabinet that Nasser was a pro-Soviet force that needed to be cut down to size.[95] Adenauer was appalled that the Americans had come out against the attack on Egypt alongside the Soviets, which led Adenauer to fear that the United States and Soviet Union would "carve up the world" with no thought for European interests.[96]


At the height of the Suez crisis, Adenauer visited Paris to meet the French Premier Guy Mollet in a show of moral support for France.[97] The day before Adenauer arrived in Paris, the Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin sent the so-called "Bulganin letters" to the leaders of Britain, France, and Israel threatening nuclear strikes if they did not end the war against Egypt.[97] The news of the "Bulganin letters" reached Adenauer mid-way on the train trip to Paris. The threat of a Soviet nuclear strike that could destroy Paris at any moment added considerably to the tension of the summit.[98] The Paris summit helped to strengthen the bond between Adenauer and the French, who saw themselves as fellow European powers living in a world dominated by Washington and Moscow.[99]

Adenauer was deeply shocked by the Soviet threat of nuclear strikes against Britain and France, and even more so by the apparent quiescent American response to the Soviet threat of nuclear annihilation against two of NATO's key members.[100] As a result, Adenauer became more interested in the French idea of a European "Third Force" in the Cold War as an alternative security policy.[101] This helped to lead to the formation of the European Economic Community in 1957, which was intended to be the foundation stone of the European "Third Force".[102]

Adenauer reached an agreement for his "nuclear ambitions" with a NATO Military Committee in December 1956 that stipulated West German forces were to be "equipped for nuclear warfare".[103] Concluding that the United States would eventually pull out of Western Europe, Adenauer pursued nuclear cooperation with other countries. The French government then proposed that France, West Germany and Italy jointly develop and produce nuclear weapons and delivery systems, and an agreement was signed in April 1958. With the ascendancy of Charles de Gaulle, the agreement for joint production and control was shelved indefinitely.[104] President John F. Kennedy, an ardent foe of nuclear proliferation, considered sales of such weapons moot since "in the event of war the United States would, from the outset, be prepared to defend the Federal Republic."[105] The physicists of the Max Planck Institute for Theoretical Physics at Göttingen and other renowned universities would have had the scientific capability for in-house development, but the will was absent,[106] nor was there public support. With Adenauer's fourth-term election in November 1961 and the end of his chancellorship in sight, his "nuclear ambitions" began to taper off.

Third government

Adenauer with French president Charles de Gaulle at the Cologne Bonn Airport in 1961

In 1957 the Saarland was reintegrated into Germany as a federal state of the Federal Republic. The election of 1957 essentially dealt with national matters.[106] His re-election campaign centered around the slogan "No Experiments".[37] Riding a wave of popularity from the return of the last POWs from Soviet labor camps, as well as an extensive pension reform, Adenauer led the CDU/CSU to an outright majority in a free German election.[107] In 1957, the Federal Republic signed the Treaty of Rome and became a founding member of the European Economic Community. In September 1958, Adenauer first met President Charles de Gaulle of France, who was to become a close friend and ally in pursuing Franco-German rapprochement.[108] Adenauer saw de Gaulle as a "rock" and the only foreign leader whom he could completely trust.[109]


On 27 November 1958 another Berlin crisis broke out when Khrushchev submitted an ultimatum with a six-month expiry date to Washington, London and Paris, where he demanded that the Allies pull all their forces out of West Berlin and agree that West Berlin become a "free city", or else he would sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany.[111] Adenauer was opposed to any sort of negotiations with the Soviets, arguing if only the West were to hang tough long enough, Khrushchev would back down.[112] As the 27 May deadline approached, the crisis was defused by the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who visited Moscow to meet with Khrushchev and managed to extend the deadline while not committing himself or the other Western powers to concessions.[113] Adenauer believed Macmillan to be a spineless "appeaser", who had made a secret deal with Khrushchev at the expense of the Federal Republic.[114][115]

Adenauer visiting a refugee kindergarten in Berlin in 1958
Adenauer and Italian Prime Minister Antonio Segni in August 1959



In late 1959, a controversy broke out when it emerged that Theodor Oberländer, the Minister of Refugees since 1953 and one of the most powerful leaders of the expellee lobby had committed war crimes against Jews and Poles during World War II.[118] Despite his past, on 10 December 1959, a statement was released to the press declaring that "Dr. Oberländer has the full confidence of the Adenauer cabinet".[119] Other Christian Democrats made it clear to Adenauer that they would like to see Oberländer out of the cabinet, and finally in May 1960 Oberländer resigned.[120]

Fourth government

U.S. president John F. Kennedy visiting Adenauer at the Hammerschmidt Villa

In 1961, Adenauer had his concerns about both the status of Berlin and US leadership confirmed, as the Soviets and East Germans built the Berlin Wall. Adenauer had come into the year distrusting the new US President, John F. Kennedy. He doubted Kennedy's commitment to a free Berlin and a unified Germany and considered him undisciplined and naïve.[121] For his part, Kennedy thought that Adenauer was a relic of the past. Their strained relationship impeded effective Western action on Berlin during 1961.[122]



During this time, Adenauer came into conflict with the Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard over the depth of German integration to the West. Erhard was in favor of allowing Britain to join to create a trans-Atlantic free trade zone, while Adenauer was for strengthening ties amongst the original founding six nations of West Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy.[126] In Adenauer's viewpoint, the Cold War meant that the NATO alliance with the United States and Britain was essential, but there could be no deeper integration into a trans-Atlantic community beyond the existing military ties as that would lead to a "mishmash" between different cultural systems that would be doomed to failure.[127] Though Adenauer had tried to get Britain to join the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951-52, by the early 1960s Adenauer had come to share General de Gaulle's belief that Britain simply did not belong in the EEC.[128] The Élysée Treaty was signed in January 1963 to solidify relations with France.




Adenauer ensured a generally free and democratic society, except the banning of the communist party and the BND spying on SPD on behalf of the CDU (see #Intelligence services and spying), and laid the groundwork for Germany to reenter the community of nations and to evolve as a dependable member of the Western world. It can be argued that because of Adenauer's policies, a later reunification of both German states was possible, and unified Germany has remained a solid partner in the European Union and NATO. The British historian Frederick Taylor argued that in many ways the Adenauer era was a transition period in values and viewpoints from the authoritarianism that characterized Germany in the first half of the 20th century to the more democratic values that characterized the western half Germany in the second half of the 20th century.[134]

Social policies

Adenauer's years in the Chancellorship saw the realization of a number of important initiatives in the domestic field, such as in housing, pension rights, and unemployment provision. A major housebuilding programme was launched, while measures introduced to assist war victims[135] and expellees.[136] A savings scheme for homeownership was set up in 1952,[137] while the Housebuilding Act of 1956 reinforced incentives for owner-occupation. Employer-funded child allowances for three or more children were established in 1954, and in 1957 the indexation of pension schemes was introduced, together with an old age assistance scheme for agricultural workers.[138] The 1952 Maternity Leave Law foresaw 12 weeks of paid leave for working mothers, who were also safeguarded from unfair dismissal,[139] and improvements in unemployment benefits were carried out.[140] The Soldiers' Law of 1956 laid down that soldiers had the same rights as other citizens, "limited only by the demands of military service."[141] Following a Federal Act of 1961, social assistance provided a safety net of minimum income "for those not adequately catered for by social insurance."[142] Controversially, however, a school lunch programme was abolished in 1950.[143]

Intelligence services and spying

By the early 1960s, connections between the CDU under Adenauer and the intelligence services ("Bundesnachrichtendienst" / BND) had become significantly closer than would be generally known until more than 50 years later. Thanks to the BND, information on the internal machinations of the opposition SPD party were available to the entire CDU leadership, and not merely to Adenauer in his capacity as chancellor. It was Adenauer himself who personally instructed the BND to spy on his SPD rival, the future chancellor Willy Brandt.[144]

Death and legacy

Funeral service for Adenauer in Cologne Cathedral
Adenauer's grave in Rhöndorf
The monument "Homage to the Founding Fathers of Europe" in front of Robert Schuman's house in Scy-Chazelles by Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli, unveiled 20 October 2012. The statues represent the four founders of Europe - Alcide De Gasperi, Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet and Konrad Adenauer.

Adenauer died on 19 April 1967 in his family home at Rhöndorf. According to his daughter, his last words were "Da jitt et nix zo kriesche!" (pronounced [d?² 'j?d?t n?ks ts? 'k?i:],[what does "²" mean?] Cologne dialect for "There's nothin' to weep about!").[145]

Adenauer's state funeral in Cologne Cathedral was attended by a large number of international guests. One hundred countries were represented,[146] they included

and many more.

After the Requiem Mass and service, his remains were taken upstream to Rhöndorf on the Rhine aboard the Seeadler-class fast attack craft Kondor of the German Navy, with two more, Seeadler and Sperber, as escorts, "past the thousands who stood in silence on both banks of the river".[148] He is interred at the Waldfriedhof ("Forest Cemetery") at Rhöndorf.[149]


In 2003, Adenauer was voted the 'greatest German of all time' in a contest called Unsere Besten ("Our Best") run on German public-service television broadcaster ZDF in which more than three million votes were cast. Adolf Hitler and East Germany's Erich Honecker were excluded from the nominations (as both are considered tyrants in modern Germany, and in the case of Hitler, would cause international controversy if nominated).[151]

Adenauer was the main motive for one of the most recent and famous gold commemorative coins: the Belgian 3 pioneers of the European unification commemorative coin, minted in 2002. The obverse side shows a portrait with the names Robert Schuman, Paul-Henri Spaak, and Konrad Adenauer; the three most important figures of the founding fathers of the European Union.[152][circular reference]


National orders

Foreign orders


See also


  1. ^ The 10,000 returnees were Wehrmacht personnel and some civilians convicted by Soviet Military Tribunals of war crimes. Among those returned in 1955 were Luftwaffe fighter ace Erich Hartmann, Generals Leopold von Babenhausen, Friedrich Foertsch, Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach and Hitler's personal pilot Hans Baur.[150]


  1. ^ "11.10.63 10:45 - Herr Bundeskanzler zu Herrn Bundespräsident - Übergabe des Rücktrittsschreibens" [Adenauer surrenders his letter of resignation to the head of state]. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (in German).
  2. ^ "Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967)".
  3. ^ Richard Hiscocks, The Adenauer era (1975) p. 290
  4. ^ Roy Jenkins (2011). Portraits and Miniatures. A&C Black. p. 56. ISBN 9781448202881.
  5. ^ a b David W. Del Testa, ed. (2001). "Adenauer, Konrad". Government Leaders, Military Rulers, and Political Activists. Westport, CT: Oryx Press. p. 4.  - via Questia (subscription required)
  7. ^ "Lebenslauf - Ein kurzer Überblick" (in German). Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Retrieved 2017.
  8. ^ Schwarz 1995, p. 94.
  9. ^ Schwarz 1995, pp. 97-99.
  10. ^ René Schlott (5 January 2015). "Konrad das Brot".
  11. ^ Germany Granted GB131402A, "Improvements in the Composition and Manufacture of Sausage Meat and the like." 
  12. ^ a b Epstein 1967, p. 539.
  13. ^ Epstein 1967, pp. 539-540.
  14. ^ Epstein 1967, pp. 540-541.
  15. ^ Schwarz 1995, pp. 128-131.
  16. ^ Mitchell 2012, p. 20.
  17. ^ Epstein 1967, pp. 541-542.
  18. ^ a b Epstein 1967, p. 542.
  21. ^ Williams 2001, p. 201.
  22. ^ Williams 2001, p. 212.
  23. ^ Cited by Peter Koch: Adenauer. Reinbek 1985
  26. ^ Schwarz 1995, pp. 322-323.
  27. ^ Schwarz 1995, pp. 321-323.
  28. ^ Schwarz 1995, pp. 335-337.
  29. ^ Schwarz 1995, pp. 345-346.
  30. ^ Schwarz 1995, pp. 344-346.
  31. ^ a b Mitchell 2012, p. 96.
  32. ^ Mitchell 2012, p. 97.
  33. ^ Mitchell 2012, p. 132.
  34. ^ Mitchell 2012, p. 133.
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  40. ^ Herf 1997, p. 217.
  41. ^ Amnesty and Amnesia By Jeffrey Herf March 10, 2003 Adenauer's Germany Nazi Past: The Politics of Amnesty and Integration By Norbert Frei
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  45. ^ A Good European Time 5 December 1949
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  48. ^ Schwarz 1995, p. 612.
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  50. ^ Schwarz 1995, p. 613.
  51. ^ Gaddis 1998, p. 124.
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  53. ^ Gaddis 1998, p. 125.
  54. ^ Schwarz 1995, pp. 592-594.
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  56. ^ Herf 1997, pp. 289-290.
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  59. ^ Large 1996, pp. 97-98.
  60. ^ Bickford, Andrew Fallen Elites: The Military Other in Post-Unification Germany, Stanford: 2011 pages 116-117
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  62. ^ Frei 2002, pp. 164-165.
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  68. ^ Large 1996, p. 70.
  69. ^ Williams 2001, p. 376.
  70. ^ Williams 2001, p. 378.
  71. ^ Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung - Wiedergutmachung
  74. ^ Gehler, Michael (1 October 2010). Three Germanies: West Germany, East Germany and the Berlin Republic (Illustrated paperback ed.). Reaktion Books. p. 62. ISBN 978-1861897787.
  75. ^ "Interview with H. Sietz, investigator (German)". Archived from the original on 20 June 2006. Retrieved 2006.
  76. ^ Harding, Luke (15 June 2006). "Menachem Begin 'plotted to kill German chancellor'". The Guardian. London.
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  78. ^ Bundesgesetz zur Entschädigung für Opfer der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung
  79. ^ Ludtke, Alf "'Coming to Terms with the Past': Illusions of Remembering, Ways of Forgetting Nazism in West Germany" pages 542-572 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 65, 1993 pages 564.
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  82. ^ a b c d Gaddis 1998, p. 134.
  83. ^ a b Large 1996, p. 217.
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  85. ^ Fritz Erler, 'Politik und nicht Prestige,' in Erler and Jaeger, Sicherheit und Rustung, 1962, p.82-3, cited in Julian Lider, Origins and Development of West German Military Thought, Vol. I, 1949-1966, Gower Publishing Company Ltd, Aldershot/Brookfield VT, 1986, p.125
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  87. ^ Goda 2007, pp. 129-131.
  88. ^ Goda 2007, pp. 130-131.
  89. ^ Goda 2007, pp. 149-151.
  90. ^ Goda 2007, pp. 152-155.
  91. ^ Contemporary World History by William J. Duiker
  93. ^ Williams 2001, p. 450, this principle became known as the Hallstein Doctrine.
  94. ^ Ahonen 1998, pp. 44-46.
  95. ^ Schwarz 1997, pp. 241-242.
  96. ^ Schwarz 1997, p. 242.
  97. ^ a b Schwarz 1997, p. 243.
  98. ^ Schwarz 1997, p. 244.
  99. ^ Schwarz 1997, p. 245.
  100. ^ Dietl, Ralph "Suez 1956: A European Intervention?" pp. 259-273 from Journal of Contemporary History, Volume 43, Issue # 2, April 2008 p. 273
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  104. ^ Williams 2001, p. 458.
  105. ^ Williams 2001, p. 490.
  106. ^ a b Williams 2001, p. 444.
  107. ^ Williams 2001, p. 445.
  108. ^ Schwarz 1997, pp. 365-366.
  109. ^ Schwarz 1997, pp. 402-403.
  111. ^ Gaddis 1998, p. 140.
  112. ^ Schwarz 1997, p. 399.
  113. ^ Gaddis 1998, p. 141.
  115. ^ Schwarz 1997, p. 396.
  116. ^ Ahonen 1998, p. 56.
  117. ^ a b Ahonen 1998, p. 59.
  118. ^ Tetens, T.H. The New Germany and the Old Nazis, New York: Random House, 1961 pages 191-192
  120. ^ Tetens, T.H. The New Germany and the Old Nazis, New York: Random House, 1961 pages 192-193
  121. ^ Kempe, Frederick (2011). Berlin 1961. Penguin Group (USA). p. 98. ISBN 978-0-399-15729-5.
  122. ^ Kempe, Frederick (2011). Berlin 1961. Penguin Group (USA). p. 101. ISBN 978-0-399-15729-5.
  123. ^ Granieri 2004, p. 135.
  124. ^ Williams 2001, p. 494, Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano was considered too subservient to the Chancellor and Gerhard Schröder became foreign minister [Williams, p. 495.
  126. ^ Granieri 2004, p. 153.
  127. ^ Granieri 2004, pp. 154-155.
  128. ^ Granieri 2004, p. 155.
  133. ^ Granieri 2004, p. 191.
  135. ^ Shouldering the Burdens of Defeat: West Germany and the Reconstruction of Social Justice. The University of North Carolina Press. 1999. p. 87. ISBN 9780807824948.
  136. ^ Germans as Victims: Remembering the Past in Contemporary Germany. Palgrave Macmillan. 2006. ISBN 9781137138729.
  137. ^ Bridging the Gap Between Social and Market Rented Housing in Six European countries. Delft University Press. 2009. p. 154. ISBN 9781607500353.
  139. ^ The Politics of Parental Leave Policies: Children, Parenting, Gender and the labour market. The Policy Press. 2009. p. 121. ISBN 9781847429032.
  140. ^ Politics of Segmentation: Party Competition and Social Protection in Europe. Routledge. 2012. ISBN 9781136476815.
  141. ^ Childs, David; Johnson, Jeffrey (1981). West Germany (RLE: German Politics): Politics and Society. p. 195. ISBN 9781317537601.
  142. ^ Hill, Malcolm (1996). Social Work and the European Community: The Social Policy and Practice Contexts. p. 184. ISBN 9781853020919.
  143. ^ "Matters of taste: The Politics of Food in Divided Germany, 1945-1971" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 2015.
  144. ^ klw (29 April 2017). "Spionage für die CDU". Zeitgeschichte. Der Spiegel. 18/2017 (reference is also made to a more detailed article in volume 15/2017): 23.
  145. ^ "Da jitt et nix zo kriesche, Der Spiegel, 14 May 2009
  146. ^ Foreign Guests.
  147. ^ "Adenauer Funeral". Texas Archive of the Moving Image. Retrieved 2019.
  148. ^ Williams 2001, p. 537.
  149. ^ Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More than 14000 Famous Persons, Scott Wilson
  150. ^ Germany and Eastern Europe Since 1945. 1973. p. 114.
  151. ^ Kroeger, Alix (29 November 2003). "Adenauer voted Germany's greatest". BBC News Online. Retrieved 2015.
  152. ^ Signature from Adenauer, Schumann, Spaak
  153. ^ Konrad Adenauer, Orden und Ehrenzeichen Archived 5 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.
  154. ^ de:Ehrenlegion
  155. ^ a b c d e f Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Archived 18 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine: Biographie, Orden und Ehrenzeichen. Archived 5 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  156. ^ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (PDF) (in German). p. 26. Retrieved 2012.
  157. ^ "Dr. Adenauer Grand Cross". Catholic Herald. 11 January 1957. Retrieved 2012.
  158. ^ http://www.ordens.presidencia.pt/?idc=154&list=1&pos=450#list
  159. ^ "Ordem Militar da Torre e Espada - Processos de Estrangeiros: Konrad Adenauer (Chanceler da República Federal da Alemanha)" (in Portuguese), Arquivo Histórico da Presidência da República. Retrieved 29 August 2020.


Primary sources

  • Adenauer, Konrad. Memoirs, (4 vols. English edition 1966-70)
  • Kreikamp, Hans-Dieter, ed. (2003). Die Ära Adenauer 1949 - 1963 (in German). Darmstadt: wbg Academic. ISBN 978-3-534-12335-3.

External links




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