Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

Christian Democratic Union Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands
Leader	Angela Merkel (Chancellor)
Founded	1945
Headquarters	Klingelhöferstraße 8 10785 Berlin
Newspaper	CDU-Zeitung
Youth wing	Junge Union
Ideology	Liberal conservatism,[1] Christian democracy
Political position	Centre-right[2]
International affiliation	Centrist Democrat International and International Democrat Union
European affiliation	European People's Party
European Parliament Group	European People's Party
Official colors	Black, Orange
Seats in the Bundestag
Seats in the Regional Parliaments
Seats in the European Parliament
Website
http://www.cdu.de
Politics of Germany Political parties Elections

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU; Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands, German pronunciation: [ˈkʁɪstlɪç ˌdemoˈkʁaːtɪʃə unˈi̯oːn ˈdɔʏtʃlants]) is a Christian democratic political party in Germany.

Along with its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, the CDU forms the CDU/CSU grouping in the Bundestag.

The leader of the party, Angela Merkel, is currently the Chancellor of Germany. The CDU is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament. Internationally, the CDU is a member of the Centrist Democrat International (CDI) and the International Democrat Union (IDU). The CDU is the largest political party in Germany, followed by the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

Party platform

The CDU is non-denominational, Christian-based, applying the principles of Christian Democracy, and emphasizes the "Christian understanding of humans and their responsibility toward God." People adhering to any confessions and non-confessional people are allowed to be members of the CDU. The CDU's policies encompass derivatives from Political Catholicism and Catholic social teaching, political Protestantism, as well as neoliberalism, fiscal conservatism and national conservatism. The CDU was the first proponent of the social market economy, although the party has adopted more liberal economic policies since Helmut Kohl's term in office as the Chancellor of Germany (1982–1998). In terms of foreign policy, the CDU commits itself to European integration and a strong relation with the USA. In the European Union, it opposes the entry of Turkey into the EU. It rather prefers a privileged partnership with Turkey. Besides citing human rights violations, the CDU also believes that Turkey's unwillingness to recognize Cyprus as an independent, sovereign state goes against the demands of EU policy that its members must recognize one another. Domestically, the CDU emphasizes curtailing red tape and the preservation of cultural traditions.

Opponents of the CDU are the social democratic SPD, the socialist Die Linke and the center-left, environmentalist Bündnis'90/Die Grünen. The CDU has also governed with the SPD in grand coalitions and in coalitions with the Bündnis'90/Die Grünen. The CDU rejects coalitions with The Left and right-wing extremist parties. The liberal FDP is the preferred partner of any CDU government since the CDU and FDP have most in common in terms of fiscal policy. The CDU, as a conservative party, supports stronger punishments of crimes, and supports involvement on the part of the Bundeswehr in cases of domestic anti-terrorism offensives, and natural catastrophes. In terms of immigrants, the CDU supports initiatives to integrate immigrants through language courses, and aims to further control immigration. Double citizenship should only be allowed in exceptional cases.

History

Party convention, Düsseldorf 1965

CDU was founded after World War II with many members of the former Centre Party, but with the goal to include not only Catholics, but also Protestants, in a common confessional, liberal and conservative party. One of the lessons learned from the failure of the Weimar Republic was that the disunity of the democratic parties was one major reason for the rise of the Nazi Party. So people (partly from the German Resistance) founded a new party without predecessor and called it a "Union" (the term Union does not refer to trade unions, which are called Gewerkschaften in the German language). The first CDU-leader in Berlin, Andreas Hermes was involved in the July 20 plot and was arrested by Nazi Germany as well as CDUs first leader and West Germany’s first chancellor Konrad Adenauer a former member of Centre Party. Other CDU representatives came from the DDP, the DNVP and DVP.

The CDU was the dominant party in West Germany for the first two decades following its establishment in 1949. Until 1963, it remained under the leadership of Konrad Adenauer. That year, Ludwig Erhard, the former minister of economics, succeeded Adenauer. Ludwig Erhard resigned as the Free Democratic Party withdrew from the governing coalition, mainly due to disagreements in fiscal and economic policy. Consequently, a grand coalition with the SPD took over government under Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU).

However, the SPD gained popularity and formed a coalition with the FDP after the general election in 1969, and thus the CDU went into opposition until 1982. The FDP formed a coalition with the CDU in 1982 after its withdrawal from the social-liberal (SPD-FDP) coalition, which was primarily triggered due to disagreements in fiscal and economic policy with the SPD. Helmut Kohl of the CDU became the new Chancellor for West Germany in 1982, and his CDU-FDP coalition was confirmed in the general election in 1983. The German Bundestag elections in 1990, brought a clear victory for the CDU-FDP governing coalition under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, showing broad public support for the unification process.

East German CDU leader Lothar de Maizière (left) with West German CDU leader Helmut Kohl, September 1990

After the downfall of East Germany's government, West German chancellor Kohl, with the strong support of France, the United Kingdom and the United States, called for the reunification of Germany. On October 3, 1990, the German Democratic Republic was abolished and its territory re-annexed to Germany. The East German CDU merged with its West German counterpart. The same year, elections were held for the reunified country. Although Kohl was reelected, the party lost much of its popularity thereafter because of an economic recession in the former GDR and a tax increase in the west. He won, however, by a narrow margin in the 1994 election, because of an economic recovery.

Helmut Kohl served as chairman until the party's electoral defeat in 1998, when he was succeeded by Wolfgang Schäuble; Schäuble resigned in early 2000 as a result of a party financing scandal and was replaced by Angela Merkel, who remains the leader of the CDU and Chancellor of Germany to this day. In the 1998 general election, the CDU polled 28.4% and the CSU 6.7% of the national vote, which was the lowest result for CDU/CSU since 1949. Thus, a Red-Green coalition under Gerhard Schröder took power until 2005. In 2002, CDU reached 29.5% and the CSU 9.0%, which was an improvement over the last election, yet the result didn't give the mandate to a CDU/CSU-FDP majority necessary for taking over government from the Red-Green coalition led by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

In 2005 early elections were called after the CDU dealt the governing SPD a major blow, winning more than ten state elections, mostly with a landslide victory. A grand coalition between the CDU/CSU and SPD faced the challenge that both parties demanded the chancellorship. However, after three weeks of negotiations, the two parties reached a deal whereby Merkel would become Chancellor and the SPD would hold 8 of the 16 seats in the cabinet and receive a majority of the most prestigious cabinet posts.^[3][4] The coalition deal was approved by both parties at party conferences on November 14.^[5] Merkel was elected Chancellor by the majority of delegates (397 to 217) in the newly assembled Bundestag on 22 November.^[6]

Internal structure

Members

The CDU currently has 530,755 members (As of: July 28, 2008)

25.4 % of members are female and 74.6 % male. The female proportion is higher in the new East Germany states with 29.2 % compared to the former states in West Germany with 24.8 %.

Before 1966 membership totals in CDU organization were only estimated. The numbers after 1966 are based on the total from December 31 of the previous year.

Data about state party group

Konrad-Adenauer-Haus, headquarters of the CDU, in Berlin

Party strongholds

The traditional strongholds of the party are concentrated in rural and Catholic regions such as the Eifel, Münsterland, Sauerland, Fulda district, Emsland, Oldenburger Münsterland, the Thuringia Eichsfeld as well as areas in Nordfriesland, Saxony, Schwaben, Vorpommern, Taunus, and smaller cities such as Baden-Baden, Konstanz, and Pforzheim. There is less support in Bremen, Brandenburg, and East Berlin.

Relationship with the CSU

Germany Day of Junge Union in Cologne, 1986

Both the CDU and the CSU originated after World War II and had the Christian perspective of humankind in common. In the Federal Parliament (Bundestag), the CDU is represented in a common faction with the CSU. This faction is called CDU/CSU or (informally) "the Union"; its basis is a binding agreement known as a Fraktionsvertrag between the two parties.

The youth organisation for CDU and CSU is common: Junge Union.

On issues of federal policies the CDU and CSU don't differ, but they remain legally and organizationally separate parties. The differences between the CDU and the somewhat more socially conservative CSU has sometimes led to conflicts in the past. The most notable and serious such incident was in 1976, when the CSU under Franz Josef Strauß ended the alliance with the CDU at a party conference in Wildbad Kreuth. This decision was reversed shortly thereafter when the CDU threatened to run candidates against the CSU in Bavaria.

The relationship of CDU to CSU has historic parallels to previous Christian Democratic parties in Germany, with the Catholic Centre Party as the national Catholic party in Germany with the Bavarian People's Party as the local Bavarian variant.

Think-tank Konrad Adenauer Foundation

Conference in Rhöndorf, with eminent historian Golo Mann (center), 1978

The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is the think-tank of the CDU. It is named after the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and first president of the CDU. The foundation offers political education, conducts scientific fact-finding research for political projects, grants scholarships to gifted individuals, researches the history of Christian Democracy, and supports and encourages European unification, international understanding, and development-policy cooperation. Its annual budget amounts to around 100 million Euro.

Special organizations

Notable suborganizations of the CDU are:

• Junge Union (JU), the common youth organisation of the CDU and the CSU
• Christlich-Demokratische Arbeitnehmerschaft (CDA), a traditionally leftist association representing Christian Democratic wage-earners
• Evangelischer Arbeitskreis der CDU/CSU (EAK, together with the CSU), representing the Protestant minority in the party
• RCDS (Ring Christlich Demokratischer Studenten), the student organisation of the party

Chairmen/Chairwomen of the Christian Democratic Union, 1950-present

• Konrad Adenauer 1950-1966
• Ludwig Erhard 1966-1967
• Kurt Georg Kiesinger 1967-1971
• Rainer Barzel 1971-1973
• Helmut Kohl 1973-1998
• Wolfgang Schäuble 1998-2000
• Angela Merkel 2000-

Parliamentary chairmen/chairwomen of the CDU/CSU group in the national parliament

• Heinrich von Brentano di Tremezzo (1949–1955)
• Heinrich Krone (1955–1961)
• Heinrich von Brentano di Tremezzo (1961–1964)
• Rainer Barzel (1964–1973)
• Karl Carstens (1973–1976)
• Helmut Kohl (1976–1982)
• Alfred Dregger (1982–1991)
• Wolfgang Schäuble (1991–2000)
• Friedrich Merz (2000–2002)
• Angela Merkel (2002–2005)
• Volker Kauder (2005-)

German Chancellors from CDU

• Konrad Adenauer (1949–1963)
• Ludwig Erhard (1963–1966)
• Kurt Georg Kiesinger (1966–1969)
• Helmut Kohl (1982–1998)
• Angela Merkel (2005- )

See also

• Christian democracy
• Christian Democratic Union (East Germany)
• Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU)
• Politics of Germany
• List of political parties in Germany
• Bundestag (Federal Assembly of Germany)
• Christian Democratic Parties

References

Further reading

• Hans-Otto Kleinmann Geschichte der CDU: 1945–1982. Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-421-06541-1

Political parties in Germany Christian Democratic Union (194) • Social Democratic Party (146) • Free Democratic Party (93) • The Left (76) • Alliance '90/The Greens (68) • Christian Social Union (45) Portal:Politics - List of political parties - Politics of Germany

External links

• Official web site of the Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands
• Official web site of the European People's Party (EPP)
• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWeastGermany.htm
• http://countrystudies.us/germany/73.htm
• http://countrystudies.us/germany/166.htm