Christian Democratic Union
The principal center-right party of Germany, founded in 1945, of Adenauer, Kohl, and Merkel.
Overview
The CDU was founded in 1945 to unite Protestants and Catholics in a democratic Christian democratic party, drawing lessons from Weimar fragmentation. Konrad Adenauer anchored the West in NATO and European integration; Ludwig Erhard built the social market economy. Helmut Kohl reunified Germany in 1990, and Angela Merkel served four terms from 2005 to 2021, the second longest chancellorship. The party is a broad moderate right church: market economy with a strong welfare floor, Atlanticist foreign policy, and European commitment. It governs in the east exclusively with its Bavarian sister, the CSU, as the Union, and returned to power in 2025 after its first sustained opposition decade.
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