1. KONRAD HERMAN JOSEPH ADENAUER
By: Álvaro Pérez- Angulo Cano

2. ÍNDICE
• Konrad Herman Joseph Adenauer
• Political life
• Years under Nazi regime
• Chancellor of West Germany
• Assassination attempt

3. HIS LIFE
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was born on 5
January 1876, an he was death on 19 April 1967. He
was a German statesman. As the first post-war
Chancellor of Germany(West Germany) from 1949 to
1963, he led his country from the ruins of World War
II to a powerful and prosperous nation that forged
close relations with old enemies: France and
the United States. In his years in power, Germany
achieved prosperity, democracy, stability and
respect. He was the first leader of the Christian
Democratic Union(CDU), a coalition of Catholics and
Protestants that under his leadership became the most
dominant in the country.

4. POLITICAL LIFE
• He joined the Centre Party 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 common-sense,
diligence, order, Christian morals and values, and was
dedicated to rooting out disorder, inefficiency, irrationality
and political immorality. From 1917 to 1933, he served as
Mayor of Cologne and became qua office a member of
the Prussian House of Lords.

5. Years under Nazi regime
• Election gains of Nazi party candidates in municipal, state and national
elections in 1930 and 1932 were significant. Adenauer, as mayor of
Cologne and president of the Prussian State Council, still believed that
improvements in the national economy would make his strategy work:
ignore the Nazis and concentrate on the Communist threat. He was
"surprisingly slow in his reaction" to the Nazi electoral successes, and even
when he was already the target of intense personal attacks, he thought
that the Nazis should be part of the Prussian and national governments
based on election returns. Political maneuverings around the aging
President Hindenburg then brought the Nazis to power on 30 January
1933. By early February Adenauer finally realized that all talk and all
attempts at compromise with the Nazis were futile. Cologne's city council
and the Prussian parliament had been dissolved; on 4 April 1933, he was
officially dismissed as mayor and his bank accounts frozen. "He had no
money, no home and no job

6. Chancellor of West Germany
The first election to the Bundestag of West Germany was held on 15 August 1949, with
the Christian Democrats emerging as the strongest party. Theodor Heuss was elected the
first President of the Republic, and Adenauer was elected Chancellor (head of
government) on 16 September 1949 with the support of his own CDU, the Christian
Social Union and the liberal Free Democratic Party. At age 73, it was initially thought that
he would only be a caretaker chancellor. 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).

7. By 1949 the U.S. and Britain agreed that West Germany had to be rearmed to
strengthen the defenses of Western Europe against a possible Soviet invasion.
What was needed was a viable democratic German Army, free of the militarism
and outlook of its wartime predecessor. The idea was that it would be essential
for the defense of Germany and indeed all of Western Europe. Adenauer was able
to overcome grave French objections and created the non-nuclear "Bundeswehr"
based on democratic principles and practices that met the Allies' criteria.
Adenauer's flat rejection was, however, out of step with public opinion; he
then realized his mistake and he started to ask questions. Critics
denounced him for having missed an opportunity for German reunification.
The Soviets sent a second note, courteous in tone. Adenauer by then
understood that all opportunity for initiative had passed out of his
hands, and the matter was put to rest by the Allies. Given the realities of
the Cold War, German reunification and recovery of lost territories in the
east were not realistic goals as both of Stalin's notes specified the retention
of the existing "Potsdam"-decreed boundaries of Germany. His re-election
campaigns centered around the slogan "No Experiments".

8. For a legal backup, the German Restitution Laws were passed in 1956, allowing
individuals and other ethnic groups than Jews to lay claims for compensation
from the German state, if they were victims of Nazi prosecution. Aside from
that, other global treaties for compensation were made with other European
states in the following decades, to compensate for the Nazi crimes.
Adenauer's achievements include the establishment of a stable democracy in West
Germany and a lasting reconciliation with France, culminating in the Élysée Treaty. His
political commitment to the Western powers achieved full sovereignty for West
Germany, which was formally laid down in the General Treaty, although there
remained Allied restrictions concerning the status of a potentially reunited Germany
and the state of emergency in West Germany. Adenauer firmly integrated the country
with the emerging Euro-Atlantic community (NATO and the Organization for European
Economic Cooperation. Adenauer is closely linked to the implementation of an
enhanced pension system, which ensured unparalleled prosperity for retired people.
Along with his Minister for Economic Affairs and successor Ludwig Erhard, the West
German model of a "social market economy" (a mixed economy
with capitalism moderated by elements of social welfare and Catholic social teaching)
allowed for the boom period known as the economic miracle that produced broad
prosperity. The Adenauer era witnessed a dramatic rise in the standard of living of
average Germans, with real wages doubling between 1950 and 1963. This rising
affluence was accompanied by a 20% fall in working hours during that same period,
together with a fall in the unemployment rate from 8% in 1950 to 0.4% in 1965. In
addition, an advanced welfare state was established.

9. Adenauer ensured a truly free and democratic society, which had
been almost unknown to the German people before —
notwithstanding the attempt between 1919 and 1933 (the Weimar
Republic) — and which is today not just normal but also deeply
integrated into modern German society. He thereby 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.
In retrospect, mainly positive assessments of his chancellorship
prevail, not only with the German public, which voted him the
"greatest German of all time" in a 2003 television poll, but even
with some of today's left-wing intellectuals, who praise his
unconditional commitment to western-style democracy and
European integration.

10. Assassination attempt
• On 27 March 1952, a package addressed to Chancellor
Adenauer exploded in the Munich Police Headquarters,
killing one Bavarian police officer. Two boys who had
been paid to send this package by mail had brought it
to the attention of the police. Investigations led to
people closely related to the Herut Party and the
former Irgun armed organization. The West German
government kept all proof under seal in order to
prevent antisemitic responses from the German public.
Five Israeli suspects identified by French and German
investigators were allowed to return to Israel.