Konrad Adenauer Detail

Germany1949CDU
CountryGermany
Year Assumed Office1949
OfficeChancellor
AffiliationCDU

About Konrad Adenauer Detail

See Adenauer main entry. He was 73 when he became Chancellor and served until 87. Adenauer was mayor of Cologne before the Nazis dismissed him. He was imprisoned twice by the Nazi regime. As Chancellor, he chose West integration over reunification, aligning Germany with NATO and the EEC. Adenauer negotiated German sovereignty in 1955. He was austere, authoritarian, and deeply Catholic. His long career earned him the nickname Der Alte or the Old One. He died in 1967 at age 91. Adenauer set postwar Germany on its transatlantic and European course.

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