Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer

The son of a Cologne civil servant; was reared in a Roman Catholic family; studied law and political science at the universities of Freiburg im Breisgau, Munich and Bonn (1894-1897); joined (1905) the Deutsche Zentrumspartei (German Centre Party), representing the Roman Catholics; was elected a member of the Cologne municipal council (Beigeordneter, 1906-1909; erster Beigeordneter, 1909-1917); chosen Bürgermeister of Cologne (18 Sep 1917) and subsequently approved (6 Oct 1917) as Oberbürgermeister (took office 18 Oct 1917); elected to the Prussian Herrenhaus (upper chamber of the parliament) (1918); called for creation of a west German state in association with the German Reich; chosen president of the Prussian Council of State (Preußischer Staatsrat) (7 May 1921 - 26 Apr 1933); was considered a potential candidate for the Reichskanzler (Reich Chancellor), but Wilhelm Marx was appointed instead (17 May 1926); fled Cologne (13 Mar 1933) with the advent of the Nazi to power and later was declared suspended from the office (notified 4 Apr 1933); formally relieved of his duties as Oberbürgermeister (17 Jul 1933); lived in retirement (1933-1944); was sent to a concentration camp (1944); restored as Oberbürgermeister of Cologne by the U.S. military authorities (4 May 1945 - 6 Oct 1945), but removed from the office by the British; founder (1946) of the Christian Democratic Union (Christlich-Demokratische Union, CDU); was elected chairman of the CDU section (1 Mar 1946) in the British zone of occupation; became the CDU parliamentary leader (2 Oct 1946) in the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia; was elected (1 Sep 1948) president of the Parlamentarischer Rat (Parliamentary Council), summoned for creating the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany (held last plenary session on 23 May 1949); became a member of the Bundestag (1949-1967); nominated (15 Sep 1949) for Bundeskanzler (Federal Chancellor) by the Bundestag and appointed (16 Sep 1949) to the office by Bundespräsident (Federal President); formed a coalition government of the Christian Democrats with the Free Democrats (Freie Demokratische Partei) and the German Party (Deutsche Partei); took the portfolio of foreign minister (15 Mar 1951 - 7 Jun 1955); worked for political consolidation of Germany and achievement of economic revival under the formula of "social market economics"; was elected federal chairman of the CDU (21 Oct 1950 - 23 Mar 1966); secured his reelection (9 Oct 1953) as Federal Chancellor following the victory of the Christian and Free Democrats at parliamentary election; pursued a policy of linking Germany with the Western world by joining (1955) to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and to the European Economic Community (1957); formed third government (1957) with absolute majority of CDU/CSU in the Bundestag; was named the CDU/CSU candidate (7 Apr 1959) at the presidential elections scheduled for 1 Jul 1959 (candidacy withdrawn on 5 Jun 1959 to be replaced with Heinrich Lübke, who became Federal President); despite the loss of a number of seats in the Bundestag (1961), was reelected Federal Chancellor by a narrow majority and formed the third coalition with the Free Democrats; signed a long-sought treaty of cooperation with France (1963); tendered his resignation and stepped down as Federal Chancellor (15 Oct 1963) with appointment of successor; served as Alterspräsident (president by age) of the Bundestag (19 Oct 1965). Biography source: [12][13]