Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (German: [ˈkɔnʁaːt ˈʔaːdənaʊɐ] ⓘ; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a new founded Christian-democratic party, which became the dominant force in the country under his leadership.
For other uses, see Konrad Adenauer (disambiguation).
Konrad Adenauer
Himself
Office established
Office established
Office established
Office abolished
Willi Suth
Willi Suth
Office established in 1921
Constituency established
Alo Hauser
19 April 1967 (aged 91)
Rhöndorf, West Germany
Waldfriedhof, Rhöndorf, Bad Honnef
- Centre Party (1906–1933)
- CDU (1945–1967)
-
Emma Weyer(m. 1904; died 1916)
-
Auguste Zinsser(m. 1919; died 1948)
8
As a devout Roman Catholic, Adenauer was a leading politician of the Catholic Centre Party in the Weimar Republic, serving as Mayor of Cologne (1917–1933) and as president of the Prussian State Council. In the early years of the Federal Republic, he switched focus from denazification to recovery, and led his country to close relations with France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[2] During his years in power, he worked to restore the West German economy from the destruction of World War II to a central position in Europe with a market-based liberal democracy, stability, international respect and economic prosperity.[3]
Adenauer belied his age by his intense work habits and his uncanny political instinct. As a strong anti-communist, Adenauer was deeply committed to an Atlanticist foreign policy and restoring the position of West Germany on the world stage. Adenauer was a driving force in re-establishing national military forces (the Bundeswehr) and intelligence services (the Bundesnachrichtendienst) in West Germany in 1955 and 1956. Adenauer refused the diplomatic recognition of the rival German Democratic Republic as an East-German state and the Oder–Neisse line as a post-war frontier to Poland. Under Adenauer, West Germany joined NATO. As a proponent of European unity, he signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957. Adenauer is claimed as one of the "Founding fathers of the European Union".
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 [dɔ² ˈjɪdət nɪks tsə ˈkʁiːʃə], Cologne dialect for "There's nothin' to weep about!").[147]
Adenauer's requiem mass in Cologne Cathedral was attended by a large number of international guests which represented over one hundred countries and organizations :[148]
Thereafter 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".[149] He is interred at the Waldfriedhof ("Forest Cemetery") at Rhöndorf.[150]
When after his death, Germans were asked what they admired most about Adenauer, the majority responded that he had brought home the last German prisoners of war from the USSR, which had become known as the "Return of the 10,000".[c]
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.[152]
Adenauer was the main motive for 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.[153]
: Grand Cross, Special Class, of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (January 1954)
