Adenauer: The Father of the New Germany

Charles Williams has written a biography almost like none I have ever read before. I am stating this because I grew up in West Germany when Konrad Adenauer was chancellor there, and remember Adenauer very vividly. Still, it was not until I read Mr. Williams' book that I learned a lot about Adenauer's life before 1945. Williams describes Adenauer's life virtually from the beginning to the end, covering every episode in equal detail, and the reader learns a lot about Adenauer who, after all, was a great statesman. It is interesting to read about Adenauer as a family man, his contacts with the Maria Laach abbey (whose abbot was a school friend of Adenauer's), his rise through the ranks of Cologne city government until he became mayor in 1917, his tenure as mayor from 1917 until 1933, his ouster by the Hitler regime, and his being in hiding from 1933 until 1945. Prior to reading that book, I had not learned a lot about Adenauer before 1945, except for a few fragments. Adenauer himself wrote memoirs after he stepped down as West German chancellor in 1963, but they begin with his return to Cologne in 1945, his being re-appointed mayor of that city by the Americans that same year, and his being dismissed by the British later that same year. The memoirs go on with his being made chancellor in 1949 and his experiences afterwards; unfortunately, they were not fully completed because Adenauer died before they could be completed. Even in that aspect, Charles Williams fills a lot of gaps with his book that Adenauer left with his memoirs. The book has since been translated into German.

This biography recounts the public and private life of Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor of Germany after WW II. Adenauer was certainly one of the great men of the 20th century, carefully crafting policies to rebuild Germany after the war and to ensure that West Germany remained free from Soviet domination. As Williams states in his introduction, Adenauer lived three very different lives. He was the mayor of Cologne (and a powerful force in the Zentrum party) until the Nazis came to power in the early 30s. He spent the next 15 years or so trying to lie low and avoid too much attention from the Gestapo. He had several close calls, particularly after the failed assasination attempt on Hitler in July of 1944, but he and his family managed to survive the war. Adenauer really came into his own after the war though. He was again appointed mayor of Cologne by the occupying powers, but was relieved of this position. Difficult at the time, it allowed him to become the undisputed leader of the newly formed Christian Democrat Party (CDP) and to guide Germany through a very difficult time. This is a wonderful biography in my view. Williams has done a great job capturing Adenauer, both in his private and his public persona. I don't think that Adenauer personally was a particularly likable man. He had few friends, was domineering with his family, and certainly neither outgoing nor personable. We was, however, a great politician who was guided by a strong moral (Catholic) compass. As a political fighter, there were probably few men of any era that were as shrewed as Adenauer. His (mostly successful) 50 years as a politician are proof of that. He knew how to maneuver situations and opponents to benefit himself personally as well as acheive his larger political goals. This book is divided into four sections. The first covers KA's life as a youth and student, the other three roughly correspond to his time as mayor of Cologne, avoiding the attention of the Nazis, and as Chancellor. I think that Williams has wonderfully captured many of the nuances of the political life of a complex, and in some ways enigmatic, man. This is not a hagiography, Adenauer certainly had his share of human weaknesses and these are not glossed over. He was also somewhat of a street fighter when it came to politics and I got the sense that Adenauer actually enjoyed the rough and tumble of the political world (particularly since he usually came out on top). One other aspect of this book really intrigued me. This book is a wonderful vignette on the Cold War from a German perspective. When reading about the 50s and the Cold War, most American readers will be intimately familiar with the Korean War, McCarthyism, and the atomic bomb. The German perspective was somewhat different, and the issues facing Adenauer give the reader an interesting perspective on the events of this era. The Soviet threat loomed right over the border, not 5000 miles away over the Arctic Ci

Charles Williams narrates with panache the life of stern and energetic Konrad Adenauer who came to the attention of the world well in the twilight of his life. Adenauer, staunch defender of the Catholic faith and strong German patriot, was born in a very modest family a few years after the proclamation of the Second Reich. After serving in the pre-war imperial bureaucracy, Adenauer gradually became the deserving, leading political figure in his native city of Cologne by the end of WWI. Adenauer assumed with cunning ability and efficiency the mayoralty of Cologne under the Weimar Republic before the Nazis obliged him to resign from his elected position in his late fifties. At that time, Adenauer himself thought that he was "kaput": he was a political liability in the eyes of the Nazis and close to financial bankruptcy. To his credit, Adenauer kept a low profile in Nazi Germany, put order in his finances with the help of (Jewish) friends and emerged with his political credentials relatively intact from the ruins of the Third Reich at the end of WWII. After neutralizing his political adversaries with ruthless efficiency and obstinacy, Adenauer was successively elected leader of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and then first post-war Chancellor of former West Germany with the approval of the occupying allies. To the victors and German internal opposition, Adenauer quickly revealed himself as a tough negotiator who was very good at dividing his adversaries by exploiting their weaknesses, in order to progressively restore the sovereignty and dignity of his beloved fatherland under the leadership of the CDU. Furthermore, Adenauer progressively overcame his parochialism by taking a leading role in the reconstruction of a unified, prosperous Western Europe at peace with itself on an equal footing with such personalities as Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet, Alcide de Gasperi and Paul-Henri Spaak. Although Adenauer died in 1967, his political legacy must remain a source of inspiration to his successors. Germany, aware of its not always glorious past and its long time pro-European stance, is called to take over the leadership in the further construction of a democratic, prosperous, and strong Europe to the chagrin of especially one nation. The center of gravity of the European Union will be moving eastwards in the coming years after the integration of Middle-European and Eastern European Nations. Future German chancellors will play a key role in the undertaking of eventually turning the dream of a United States of Europe into a reality in partnership with the United States of America. Only a Europe speaking with one voice in economic, military, political and social matters will be systematically taken seriously by the other great powers of this world.

"Adenauer: The Father Of The New Germany" is a fascinating, often spellbinding, account of the life of West Germany's greatest chancellor, Konrad Adenauer. Adenauer's iron-willed personality is successfully recounted by Williams' excellent prose. To his credit, Charles Williams offers us a balanced account of Adenauer's life, yet nonetheless shows how Adenauer almost singlehandedly restored Germany's honor within the world community in the aftermath of World War II and the savagery of the Nazi regime. Williams provides us with a complex portrayal of a man governed by his deep-seated Catholic convictions, who eventually championed the vision of a tranquil, united Europe. He does a splendid job covering Adenauer's career as Cologne's mayor, his internal "exile" during the Nazi regime, and finally, his duties as the Federal Republic of Germany's first chancellor. This splendid book is one of the finest biographies of a distinguished statesman I've had the pleasure of reading; it certainly rivals David McCullough's "John Adams" for its wealth of information and spellbinding portrayal of its subject.