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The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (German: Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands [ˈkʁɪstlɪç demoˈkʁaːtɪʃə ʔuˈni̯oːn ˈdɔʏtʃlants]; CDU German pronunciation: [ˌtseːdeːˈʔuː] ⓘ) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany.
- 26 June 1945; 78 years ago
- Centre-right
Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands. Neueste Beiträge. Zur Übersicht. Serap Güler und Seyran Papo im Interview. Meist gelesen. Eid Mubarak – Ein gesegnetes Zuckerfest! Bundestag: 79 Jahre Befreiung KZ Buchenwald. Jüdisches Leben umfassend schützen. Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik. Mit der Ampel ist Deutschland unsicherer geworden.
- Overview
- History
- Policy and structure
Christian Democratic Union (CDU), German centre-right political party that supports a free-market economy and social welfare programs but is conservative on social issues. The CDU has also been a strong advocate of European integration and has cultivated close relations with the United States while in government. The CDU, along with its Bavarian af...
The CDU was founded in 1945 by a diverse group of former Weimar Republic (1919–33) politicians, including activists in the old Roman Catholic Centre Party, liberal and conservative Protestants, workers, intellectuals, and segments of the middle class who decided to become active in the new postwar democracy in order to prevent any rebirth of fascism in Germany. Indeed, Nazi Germany was very much on the minds of these early Christian Democrats, and, despite the disparate backgrounds of the party’s leaders and members, they shared some critical core beliefs that have shaped and guided the party since its founding.
First, they believed that the historic conflicts and divisions between Roman Catholics and Protestants were in part responsible for the rise of Adolf Hitler. The major thrust of Catholic political activity, for example, was directed through the Centre Party, while Protestants tended to support the various nationalist and liberal parties; Catholics generally endorsed the concordat between the Vatican and Hitler (1933), thus undercutting any substantial opposition to the regime by Catholic political activists. To ensure that such a regime could not usurp democratic institutions again, the founders of both the CDU and the CSU were determined to create parties that contained adherents of both groups; since the CDU’s founding, great emphasis has been placed on ensuring a balance of religions within the party’s various organizations. The task of ending the historic enmity between Roman Catholics and Protestants was made easier by the fact that the division of Germany into West and East Germany had brought rough parity between the two denominations within the Federal Republic.
Second, after some initial flirtation with socialism (particularly because of links with members in the Soviet zone before Germany was divided into two countries), most Christian Democrats by the end of the 1940s had reached a consensus that a “social market economy”—a mix of free-market capitalism with strong government regulation and a comprehensive welfare state—was the best alternative for Germany.
Third, the party’s foreign policy was staunchly anticommunist, pro-American, and supportive of European integration; indeed, West Germany was pivotal in the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (1952), one of the precursors of the European Union (EU).
The CDU-CSU alliance won stunning victories in Germany’s elections in 1949 and in subsequent elections in the 1950s. It owed its early success largely to two men: Konrad Adenauer, the party’s first leader and German chancellor from 1949 to 1963, and Ludwig Erhard, considered the father of Germany’s Wirtschaftswunder (“economic miracle”), who served as Adenauer’s economics minister and then succeeded him as chancellor in 1963.
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From its beginnings, the CDU has emphasized that it is a Volkspartei (“people’s party”) that has offered a political home to all Germans—regardless of religion, region, social class, occupation, gender, or age—who accept its overarching principles. As the archetypal “catchall party” that is pragmatic and office-seeking and that views itself as representing the entire population rather than particular sectional interests, the CDU has been remarkably open to a wide variety of political interests: both big and small businesses, labour and agriculture, and small towns and big cities are all represented within its ranks.
The party’s organization is decentralized. The various Land (state), district, county, and local organizations, together with auxiliary women’s, youth, business, agricultural, and labour groups, are independent of any national or central control (though, since unification, the former East German party organizations have been more dependent on central control than their Western counterparts). Indeed, the key to the party’s success at the national level has been its ability to mobilize the support of these subnational and auxiliary groups. For example, Kohl’s record 25-year tenure as the party’s national leader was largely the result of the personal relationships that he had developed with subnational leaders and his detailed knowledge of local conditions.
Things to know about the CDU. Jefferson Chase | Rina Goldenberg. 09/27/2021. The Christian Democrats are not only Germany's leading party. The CDU is also an institution that's very much...
17. Dez. 2021 · 12/17/2021. Members of the Christian Democratic Union have chosen Friedrich Merz to chair their party — now in opposition for the first time in 16 years. A prominent conservative, he is...
CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties (German: Unionsparteien, pronounced [uˈni̯oːnspaʁˈtaɪ̯ən]) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU).
15. Jan. 2021 · German voters will elect a new government on Sept. 26, and Ms. Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union remains the country’s most popular party, according to a survey by...
