Konrad Adenauer was the first chancellor of West Germany after World War II. He established good relations between Germany and France, which became the groundwork of European integrations.
Konrad Adenauer is, according to public polls, considered the greatest German of all time (ahead of Luther, Marx, Bach, Goethe, Gutenberg, and Einstein). He was born on this day in the city of Cologne. He was baptized as a Catholic, and remained such until his death. He was the founder and leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a coalition of Catholics and Protestants, which is still the strongest party in Germany today.
Konrad Adenauer was the first chancellor of West Germany after World War II. He established good relations between Germany and France, which became the groundwork of European integrations, and he also contributed to the establishment of good relations with Israel and the Jewish people as a whole. Under his leadership, Germany restored its economic power and became an important member of NATO as an ally of the United States.
He led an extremely anti-communist politic, so he was in pretty bad relations with East Germany and the Eastern bloc as a whole. He finished the denazification of Germany and successfully reintegrated former Nazis into German society. In short, Germany as we know it today would be unthinkable without the strong person of Konrad Adenauer.
