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Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands
Abbreviation	CDU
Chairperson	Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
Vice Chairmen	Volker Bouffier Ursula von der Leyen Julia Klöckner Armin Laschet Thomas Strobl
General Secretary	Paul Ziemiak
Founded	26 June 1945; 73 years ago (1945-06-26)
Split from	Centre Party
Headquarters	Klingelhöferstraße 8 10785 Berlin, Germany
Newspaper	Union
Youth wing	Young Union
Membership (January 2018)	425,910[1]
Ideology	Christian democracy[2][3][4] Liberal conservatism[2] Pro-Europeanism[citation needed]
Political position	Centre-right[5][6][7][8][9]
National affiliation	CDU/CSU
European affiliation	European People's Party
International affiliation	Centrist Democrat International International Democrat Union
European Parliament group	European People's Party
Colours	Orange      Black (customary)
Bundestag	200 / 709
Bundesrat	22 / 69
State Parliaments	520 / 1,821
European Parliament	29 / 96
Prime ministers of states	6 / 16
Party flag
Website
cdu.de
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The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (German: Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands or CDU; German pronunciation: [ˈkʁɪstlɪç ˌdemoˈkʁaːtɪʃə ʔuˈni̯oːn ˈdɔʏtʃlants]) is a Christian democratic^[2][3][4] and liberal-conservative^[2]political party in Germany. It is the major catch-all party of the centre-right in German politics.^[10][11] The CDU forms the CDU/CSU grouping, also known as the Union, in the Bundestag with its Bavarian counterpart the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). The party is widely considered an effective successor of the Centre Party, although it has a broader base.^[12]

The leader of the CDU is Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. She is the successor of the former party leader Angela Merkel, who is the current Chancellor of Germany. The CDU is a member of the Centrist Democrat International, International Democrat Union and European People's Party (EPP).

History

Immediately following the collapse of the Nazi dictatorship at the end of World War II, the need for a new political order in Germany was paramount. Simultaneous yet unrelated meetings began occurring throughout Germany, each with the intention of planning a Christian-democratic party. The CDU was established in Berlin on 26 June 1945 and in Rheinland and Westfalen in September of the same year.

The founding members of the CDU consisted primarily of former members of the Centre Party, the German Democratic Party, the German National People's Party and the German People's Party. Many of these individuals, including CDU-Berlin founder Andreas Hermes, were imprisoned for the involvement in the German Resistance during the Nazi dictatorship. In the Cold War years after World War II up to the 1960s (see Vergangenheitsbewältigung), the CDU also attracted conservative, anti-communist former Nazis and Nazi collaborators into its higher ranks (like Hans Globke and Theodor Oberländer). A prominent anti-Nazi member was theologian Eugen Gerstenmaier, who became Acting Chairman of the Foreign Board (1949-1969).

The election poster of 1957 reading "No experiments" and featuring then Chancellor Konrad Adenauer what would be the only election in which the CDU obtained an absolute majority

One of the lessons learned from the failure of the Weimar Republic was that disunity among the democratic parties ultimately allowed for the rise of the Nazi Party. It was therefore crucial to create a unified party of christian democrats—a Christian Democratic Union. The result of these meetings was the establishment of an interconfessional (Catholic and Protestant alike) party influenced heavily by the political tradition of liberal conservatism. The CDU experienced considerable success gaining support from the time of its creation in Berlin on 26 June 1945 until its first convention on 21 October 1950, at which Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was named the first Chairman of the party.

In the beginning, it was not clear which party would be favored by the victors of World War II, but by the end of the 1940s the governments of the United States and of Britain began to lean toward the CDU and away from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The latter was more nationalist and sought German reunification even at the expense of concessions to the Soviet Union, depicting Adenauer as an instrument of both the Americans and the Vatican. The Western powers appreciated the CDU's moderation, its economic flexibility and its value as an oppositional force to the communists which appealed to European voters at the time. Adenauer was also trusted by the British.^[13]

The party was split over issues of rearmament within the Western alliance and German unification as a neutral state. Adenauer staunchly defended his pro-Western position and outmanoeuvred some of his opponents. He also refused to consider the SPD as a party of the coalition until he felt sure that they shared his anti-communist position. The principled rejection of a reunification that would alienate Germany from the Western alliance made it harder to attract Protestant voters to the party as most refugees from the former German territories east of the Oder were of that faith as were the majority of the inhabitants of East Germany.^[13]

The CDU was the dominant party for the first two decades following the establishment of West Germany in 1949. Adenauer remained the party's leader until 1963, at which point the former minister of economics Ludwig Erhard replaced him.^[14] As the Free Democratic Party (FDP) withdrew from the governing coalition in 1966 due to disagreements over fiscal and economic policy, Erhard was forced to resign. Consequently, a grand coalition with the SPD took over government under CDU Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger.

The SPD quickly gained popularity and succeeded in forming a social-liberal coalition with the FDP following the 1969 federal election, forcing the CDU out of power for the first time in their history. The CDU continued its role as opposition until 1982, when the FDP's withdrawal from the coalition with the SPD allowed the CDU to regain power.

Kohl Era (1983–1998)

CDU Chairman Helmut Kohl became the new Chancellor of West Germany and his CDU–FDP coalition was confirmed in the 1983 federal election. Public support for the coalition's work in the process of German reunification was reiterated in the 1990 federal election in which the CDU–FDP governing coalition experienced a clear victory.

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

After the collapse of the East German government in 1989, Kohl—supported by the governments of the United States and reluctantly by those of France and the United Kingdom—called for German reunification. On 3 October 1990, the government of East Germany was abolished and its territory acceded to the scope of the Basic Law already in place in West Germany. The East German CDU merged with its West German counterpart and elections were held for the reunified country. Although Kohl was re-elected, the party began losing much of its popularity because of an economic recession in the former GDR and increased taxes in the west. The CDU was nonetheless able to win the 1994 federal election by a narrow margin due to an economic recovery.

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 remained the leader of the CDU until 2018. In the 1998 federal 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 and a red–green coalition under the leadership of Gerhard Schröder took power until 2005. In 2002, the CDU and CSU polled slightly higher (29.5% and 9.0%, respectively), but still lacked the majority needed for a CDU–FDP coalition government.

Merkel Era (2000–2018)

Angela Merkel

In 2005, early elections were called after the CDU dealt the governing SPD a major blow, winning more than ten state elections, most of which were landslide victories. The resulting grand coalition between the CDU/CSU and the SPD faced a serious challenge stemming from both parties' demand for the chancellorship. After three weeks of negotiations, the two parties reached a deal whereby CDU received the chancellorship while the SPD retained 8 of the 16 seats in the cabinet and a majority of the most prestigious cabinet posts.^[15] The coalition deal was approved by both parties at party conferences on 14 November.^[16] Merkel was confirmed as the first female Chancellor of Germany by the majority of delegates (397 to 217) in the newly assembled Bundestag on 22 November.^[17]

Although the CDU/CSU lost support in the 2009 federal elections, the FDP experienced the best election cycle in their history, thereby enabling a CDU/CSU–FDP coalition. This marked the first change of coalition partner by a Chancellor in German history and the first centre-right coalition government since 1998. CDU/CSU–FDP coalition lasted until 2013 federal elections, when FDP failed to win any seats in Bundestag. The CDU/CSU formed a new grand coalition with the SPD. In October 2018, Merkel announced that she would step down as leader of the CDU in December 2018, but wanted to remain as Chancellor until 2021.^[18]

Kramp-Karrenbauer (2018–present)

On 7 December 2018, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected as new party leader of the CDU in the Christian Democratic Union of Germany leadership election.

Voter base

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

While Adenauer and Erhard co-operated with non-Nazi parties to their right, the CDU has later worked to marginalize its right-wing opposition. The loss of anti-communism as a political theme, secularization and the cultural revolutions in West Germany occurring since the 1960s have challenged the viability of the CDU.

In her 2005 campaign, Angela Merkel was unwilling to express explicitly Christian views while maintaining that her party had never lost its concept of values. Merkel and Bundestag President Norbert Lammert have been keen to clarify that CDU references to the "dominant culture" imply "tolerance and living together".^[13] According to party analyst Stephan Eisel, her avoiding the values-issue may have had the opposite effect as she failed to mobilize the party's core constituency.^[19]

The CDU applies the principles of Christian democracy and emphasizes the "Christian understanding of humans and their responsibility toward God". However, CDU membership consists of people adhering to a variety of religions as well as non-religious individuals. The CDU's policies derive from political Catholicism, Catholic social teaching and political Protestantism as well as fiscal conservatism and national conservatism. The party has adopted more liberal economic policies since Helmut Kohl's term in office as the Chancellor of Germany (1982–1998).

As a conservative party, the CDU supports stronger punishments of crimes and involvement on the part of the Bundeswehr in cases of domestic anti-terrorism offensives. In terms of immigrants, the CDU supports initiatives to integrate immigrants through language courses and aims to further control immigration. Dual citizenship should only be allowed in exceptional cases.

In terms of foreign policy, the CDU commits itself to European integration and a strong relation with the United States. In the European Union, the party opposes the entry of Turkey, preferring instead a privileged partnership. In addition to citing various human rights violations, the CDU also believes that Turkey's unwillingness to recognise Cyprus as an independent sovereign state contradicts the European Union policy that its members must recognise the existence of one another.

The CDU has governed in four federal-level and numerous state-level Grand Coalitions with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as well as in state and local-level coalitions with the Alliance '90/The Greens. The CDU rejects coalitions with either far-left or far-right parties.

Internal structure

Members

According to news media, the CDU had 420,240 members by June 2018. In 2017, it had added a net 1,000, the first increase since 2003.^[20] In May 2012, the CDU had 484,397 members. The number has dropped by 3.1% in 2011 and 3.0% in 2010.

In 2012, the members' average age was 59 years. 6% of the Christian Democrats were under 30 years old.^[21] A 2007 study by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation showed that 25.4% of members were female and 74.6% male. Female participation was higher in the former East German states with 29.2% compared to 24.8% in the former West German states.^[22]

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

State group		Chairman		Members
	Baden-Württemberg		Thomas Strobl	074,669
	Berlin		Monika Grütters	012,568
	Brandenburg		Ingo Senftleben	006,797
	Bremen		Jörg Kastendiek	003,246
	Hamburg		Roland Heintze	009,697
	Hesse		Volker Bouffier	047,789
	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern		Vincent Kokert	006,038
	Lower Saxony		Bernd Althusmann	072,813
	North Rhine-Westphalia		Armin Laschet	165,273
	Rhineland-Palatinate		Julia Klöckner	049,856
	Saarland		Tobias Hans	020,651
	Saxony		Michael Kretschmer	013,148
	Saxony-Anhalt		Holger Stahlknecht	008,410
	Schleswig-Holstein		Daniel Günther	026,674
	Thuringia		Mike Mohring	012,035

Membership development

Relationship to the CSU

Germany Day of Junge Union in Cologne, 1986

Both the CDU and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) originated after World War II, sharing a concern for the Christian worldview. In the 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 CDU and CSU share a common youth organisation, the Junge Union, a common pupil organisation, the Schüler Union Deutschlands [de], a common student organisation, the Ring Christlich-Demokratischer Studenten and a common Mittelstand organisation, the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsvereinigung [de].

On issues of federal policies, the CDU and CSU do not differ,^{[citation needed]} but they remain legally and organisationally separate parties. The social differences between the CDU and the somewhat more socially conservative CSU have sometimes been a source of conflict 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 the CSU has historic parallels to previous Christian-democratic parties in Germany, with the Catholic Centre Party having served as a national Catholic party throughout the German Empire and the Weimar Republic while the Bavarian People's Party functioning as the Bavarian variant.

Since its formation, the CSU has been more conservative than the CDU. The CSU and the state of Bavaria decided not to sign the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany as they insisted on more autonomy for the individual states.^[23] The CSU and the free state of Bavaria have a separate police and justice system (distinctive and non-federal) and have actively participated in all political affairs of the Bundestag, the German government, the Bundesrat, the parliamentary elections of the German President, the European Parliament and meetings with Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia.

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 120 million euro and is mostly funded by taxpayer money.^[24]

Special organizations

Notable suborganisations of the CDU are the following:

• 
  Junge Union (JU), the common youth organisation of the CDU and the CSU.


• 
  Christian Democratic Employees' Association (CDA), a traditionally leftist association representing Christian-democratic wage earners.


• 
  Evangelical Working Group of the CDU/CSU (EAK, together with the CSU), representing the Protestant minority in the party.


• 
  Association of Christian Democratic Students (RCDS), the student organisation of the party.

Chairperson of the CDU, 1950–present

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

German Chancellors from the CDU

Election results

Election posters of the CDU in 1949

Federal Parliament (Bundestag)

Election year	Leader	No. of constituency votes	No. of party list votes	% of party list votes	No. of overall seats won	+/–	Government
1949	Konrad Adenauer		5,978,636	25.2	115 / 402		CDU/CSU–FDP–DP
1953	Konrad Adenauer	9,577,659	10,016,594	36.4	197 / 509	82	CDU/CSU–FDP–DP
1957	Konrad Adenauer	11,975,400	11,875,339	39.7	222 / 519	25	CDU/CSU–DP
1961	Konrad Adenauer	11,622,995	11,283,901	35.8	201 / 521	21	CDU/CSU–FDP
1965	Konrad Adenauer	12,631,319	12,387,562	38.0	202 / 518	1	CDU/CSU–SPD
1969	Kurt Georg Kiesinger	12,137,148	12,079,535	36.6	201 / 518	1	Opposition
1972	Rainer Barzel	13,304,813	13,190,837	35.2	186 / 518	15	Opposition
1976	Helmut Kohl	14,423,157	14,367,302	38.0	201 / 518	15	Opposition
1980	Helmut Kohl	13,467,207	12,989,200	34.2	185 / 519	16	Opposition
1983	Helmut Kohl	15,943,460	14,857,680	38.1	202 / 520	17	CDU/CSU–FDP
1987	Helmut Kohl	14,168,527	13,045,745	34.4	185 / 519	17	CDU/CSU–FDP
1990	Helmut Kohl	17,707,574	17,055,116	36.7	268 / 662	83	CDU/CSU–FDP
1994	Helmut Kohl	17,473,325	16,089,960	34.2	244 / 672	24	CDU/CSU–FDP
1998	Helmut Kohl	15,854,215	14,004,908	28.4	198 / 669	46	Opposition
2002	Angela Merkel	15,336,512	14,167,561	29.5	190 / 603	8	Opposition
2005	Angela Merkel	15,390,950	13,136,740	27.8	180 / 614	10	CDU/CSU–SPD
2009	Angela Merkel	13,856,674	11,828,277	27.3	194 / 622	14	CDU/CSU–FDP
2013	Angela Merkel	16,233,642	14,921,877	34.1	254 / 630	61	CDU/CSU–SPD
2017	Angela Merkel	14,027,804	12,445,832	26.8	200 / 709	54	CDU/CSU–SPD

European Parliament

Election year	No. of overall votes	% of overall vote	No. of overall seats won	+/–
1979	10,883,085	39.0 (2nd)	33 / 81
1984	9,308,411	37.5 (1st)	32 / 81	1
1989	8,332,846	29.5 (2nd)	24 / 81	8
1994	11,346,073	32.0 (2nd)	39 / 99	15
1999	10,628,224	39.2 (1st)	43 / 99	4
2004	9,412,009	36.5 (1st)	40 / 99	3
2009	8,071,391	30.6 (1st)	34 / 99	6
2014	8,807,500	30.0 (1st)	29 / 96	5

State Parliaments (Länder)

Note that the CDU does not contest elections in Bavaria due to the alliance with Bavarian sister party, the CSU.

State Parliament	Election year	No. of overall votes	% of overall vote	Seats			Government
				No.	±	Position
Baden-Württemberg	2016	1,447,249	27 (2nd)	42 / 138	18	2nd	Greens–CDU
Berlin	2016	288,002	17.6 (2nd)	31 / 160	8	2nd	Opposition
Brandenburg	2014	226,844	23 (2nd)	21 / 88	2	2nd	Opposition
Bremen	2015	261,929	22.4 (2nd)	20 / 83	0	2nd	Opposition
Hamburg	2015	561,377	15.9 (2nd)	20 / 121	8	2nd	Opposition
Hesse	2018		27.0 (1st)	40 / 137	7	1st	CDU–Greens
Lower Saxony	2017	2,707,274	35.4 (2nd)	50 / 137	4	2nd	SPD–CDU
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	2016	153,101	19 (3rd)	16 / 71	2	3rd	SPD–CDU
North Rhine-Westphalia	2017	2,796,683	33 (1st)	72 / 199	5	1st	CDU–FDP
Rhineland-Palatinate	2016	677,507	31.8 (2nd)	35 / 101	6	2nd	Opposition
Saarland	2017	217,265	40.7 (1st)	24 / 51	5	1st	CDU–SPD
Saxony	2014	645,344	39.4 (1st)	59 / 126	1	1st	CDU–SPD
Saxony-Anhalt	2016	334,123	29.8 (1st)	30 / 87	12	1st	CDU–SPD–Greens
Schleswig-Holstein	2017	470,312	32 (1st)	25 / 73	3	1st	CDU–Greens–FDP
Thuringia	2014	315,096	33.5 (1st)	34 / 91	4	1st	Opposition

See also

• Archive for Christian Democratic Policy


• List of Christian democratic parties


• List of political parties in Germany


• 
  Merkel-Raute, the signature gesture of Angela Merkel which is prominently featured in the CDU's campaign for the 2013 federal election^[25]


• Party finance in Germany

References

Further reading

• 
  Bösch, Frank (2004). Steven Van Hecke; Emmanuel Gerard, eds. Two Crises, Two Consolidations? Christian Democracy in Germany. Christian Democratic Parties in Europe Since the End of the Cold War. Leuven University Press. pp. 55–78. ISBN 90-5867-377-4.
  


• 
  Cary, Noel D. (1996). The Path to Christian Democracy: German Catholics and the Party System from Windthorst to Adenauer. Harvard University Press.
  


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


• 
  Lappenküper, Ulrich (2004). Michael Gehler; Wolfram Kaiser, eds. Between Concentration Movement and People's Party: The Christian Democratic Union of Germany. Christian Democracy in Europe since 1945. Routledge. pp. 21–32. ISBN 0-7146-5662-3.
  


• 
  Mitchell, Maria (2012). The Origins of Christian Democracy: Politics and Confession in Modern Germany. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-11841-0.
  


• 
  Wiliarty, Sarah Elise (2010). The CDU and the Politics of Gender in Germany: Bringing Women to the Party. Cambridge University Press.
  

External links

• Official web site of the Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands


• Official web site of the European People's Party (EPP)