Adenauer

Anti-nazi, anti-communist, and catholic, Konrad Adenauer dragged defeated Germany from post-war destruction to prosperity in one generation.

• Concise portrait of an extraordinary statesman - explores Adenauer's personal influence in policies pursued.
• German Federal Republic was West European lynchpin during Cold War - this book explains why and how.
• Adenauer's achievements live on today - European Union, German democracy.

Known as the Father of the new Germany, Konrad Adenauer was one of the big three leaders who helped rebuild Europe from the ruins of the Second World War. Ronald Irving reviews Adenauer's record in office from Mayor of Cologne in pre-Nazi Germany to his post-war emergence as leader of the Christian Democratic Union and his election to the Chancellorship in 1949. This latest offering in the Profiles in Power series examines how Adenauer united Catholics and Conservatives for the first time under the liberal democratic banner, and integrated West German society into liberal democratic values underpinned by the social market economy. It also explores how Adenauer also played a vital role in ensuring that the traditional enemies, France and Germany, came together in co-operation and partnership in the new European Economic Community.

Ronald Irving is at the University of Edinburgh.