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Person1876 – 1967

Konrad Adenauer

First chancellor of West Germany (1949–1963), who anchored it in the West, took it into NATO and championed European integration

A Catholic Centre Party politician and mayor of Cologne from 1917, he was ousted by the Nazis in 1933, lived in hiding and was twice arrested. After the war he led the Christian Democratic Union and, as president of the Parliamentary Council, steered the drafting of the Basic Law. Becoming West Germany’s first chancellor at 73 in 1949, he governed for fourteen years, binding the country to the West, taking it into NATO and reconciling with France (the Élysée Treaty, 1963). In 1955 he went to Moscow and won the release of the last German prisoners of war. Critics charged that he put Western integration ahead of unity.

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3 related events

  1. 1
    1949Founding of the Federal Republic of Germanykey figure

    Delegates of the Western zones drafted the Basic Law in Bonn and the Federal Republic of Germany came into being; in September Adenauer became its first chancellor.

  2. 2
    1955West Germany Joins NATO and the Warsaw Pactkey figure

    When West Germany regained sovereignty and joined NATO, the Soviet Union, East Germany and the other Eastern European states formed the Warsaw Pact five days later. The two Germanys became the front line between two military blocs.

  3. 3
    1963Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” Speechrelated figure

    Two years after the Wall went up, President Kennedy visited West Berlin and told hundreds of thousands gathered before Schöneberg Town Hall, “Ich bin ein Berliner”, pledging to stand by the city.

People who appear alongside

  • John F. Kennedy1917 – 1963

    35th US president (1961–1963) who resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis and launched the Apollo programme; assassinated in Dallas in 1963

  • Willy Brandt1913 – 1992

    Mayor of West Berlin (1957–1966) and chancellor of West Germany (1969–1974) whose Ostpolitik sought reconciliation with the East; Nobel Peace Prize 1971

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