Konrad Adenauer

Adenauer's biggest contribution to the tradition was the CDU itself: a "Union" that brought Catholics and Protestants into one party for the first time, after their division had weakened German democracy before 1933. As chancellor from 1949 to 1963 he anchored West Germany in the West and in European integration, and accepted the 1957 pension reform that tied pensions to wages. Critics on the left pointed to former Nazis such as Hans Globke serving in his chancellery.