Adenauer's Heirs: The CDU/CSU from Dtente to Reunification [Hardcover]

Adenauer's Heirsis a history of the Federal Republic of Germany from the 1960s to the 1990s that focuses on the role of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) in shaping West Germany's place in a rapidly changing domestic and international environment. It reveals how debates within the CDU/CSU helped shape West Germany's role in both NATO and the emerging European Union, culminating in reunification, and considers the legacy of those historical developments for Germany's current and future role in the world.The 1960s in Europe saw the emergence of social protest, newly confident center-left parties, Cold War d?tente, and frustrations with the pace and direction of European integration. The Federal Republic of Germany experienced these upheavals from a special position: on the front line of the Cold War, occupying a key position in both the European and Atlantic communities, and haunted by Nazi-era crimes. The parties that had governed West Germany since its founding in 1949-the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU)-underwent an especially intense identity crisis. European integration and the social market economy were essential to Christian Democratic political identity, but both faced challenges from right and left. The CDU/CSU was torn between market liberalism and social solidarity, and between nationalist conservatism and European enthusiasm.Konrad Adenauer, the first West German Chancellor, led the CDU and CSU to two decades of political dominance. As Adenauer retired from active politics, however, the parties gradually lost their grip on national power and had to reorient themselves in a rapidly changing domestic and international political environment. Aspiring to appeal to the broad political center, and to advocate both for German reunification and European cooperation, both parties and their leaders, including Franz Josef Strau? and Helmut Kohl, struggled to stabilize the provisional FederallC‹