Adenauer, Konrad (1876-1967)

German Christian Democrat politician, chancellor of West Germany 1949-63. With the French president Charles de Gaulle he achieved the post-war reconciliation of France and Germany and strongly supported all measures designed to strengthen the Western bloc in Europe.

Adenauer was mayor of his native city of Cologne from 1917 until his imprisonment by Hitler in 1933 for opposition to the Nazi regime. After the war he headed the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and became chancellor, combining the office with that of foreign minister. He was re-elected chancellor in 1953 and retained the post of foreign minister until 1955.

His visit to Moscow in 1955 resulted in the establishment of diplomatic relations between West Germany and the USSR and several thousand German prisoners, still held in the Soviet Union, were sent home. He was a staunch advocate of West Germany's participation in the defence of Western Europe, and in 1955 the republic joined both NATO and the 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, an effort culminating in the reconciliation treaty signed in Paris in January 1963.

In October 1962, following allegations from Adenauer's government, five members of the editorial staff at the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel were arrested in a federal police raid, for allegedly publishing military information of a secret nature. Many irregularities surrounded the government's action against the magazine, and the following month five cabinet ministers resigned.

Adenauer was criticized in some quarters for allowing Germany to be France's junior partner in Europe. In home affairs, his authoritarianism, coupled with incidents such as the Der Spiegel affair and his generally cool relations with Willy Brandt, the mayor of West 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 chair of the CDU until 1966.