Adenauer's Heirs: The CDU/CSU from Détente to Reunification

The 1960s in Europe saw the emergence of social protest, newly confident center-left parties, Cold War détente, 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