Founding period Immediately following the end of
World War II and the
foreign occupation of Germany, simultaneous yet unrelated meetings began occurring throughout the country, each with the intention of planning a
Christian-democratic party. Consequently, the CDU was established in
Berlin on 26 June 1945 and in
Rheinland and
Westfalen in September of the same year. The result of these meetings was the establishment of an inter-confessional (
Catholic and
Protestant alike) party influenced heavily by the political tradition of
liberal conservatism. The CDU experienced considerable success gaining widespread support from the time of its creation in Berlin on 26 June 1945 until its first
convention on 21 October 1950, at which future West German Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer was named the first Chairman of the party.
Adenauer era (1949–1963) reading "No experiments" and featuring then Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer. This was the only federal election in which the CDU obtained an absolute majority in the
Bundestag. In the beginning, it was not clear which party would be favored by the victors of
World War II, but by the end of the 1940s the governments of the United States and of the United Kingdom began to lean more toward the CDU and significantly away from the
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), especially due to
geopolitical reasons. The latter was more
nationalist and sought
German reunification even at the expense of concessions to the
Soviet Union (USSR), depicting Adenauer as an instrument of both the Americans and the
Vatican. The Western powers appreciated the CDU's right-ward slant, its commitment to capitalism, and its value as a pivotal oppositional force to the communists, thereby keeping consistent with US/UK foreign policy. In addition, Adenauer was also trusted by the British. However, the party was split over issues of rearmament within the Western alliance and German unification as a neutral state. Adenauer staunchly defended his pro-Western position and outmaneuvered some of his opponents. He also refused to consider the
SPD as a party of the coalition until he felt sure that they shared his
anti-communist position. The principled rejection of a reunification that would alienate Germany from the Western alliance made it harder to attract Protestant voters to the party, as most refugees from the former German territories east of the
Oder river were of that faith, as were the majority of the inhabitants of
East Germany. As the
Free Democratic Party (FDP) withdrew from the governing coalition in 1966 due to disagreements over fiscal and economic policy, Erhard was forced to resign. Consequently, a
grand coalition with the SPD took over government under CDU Chancellor
Kurt Georg Kiesinger.
Opposition against social-liberal governments (1969–1982) The SPD quickly gained popularity and succeeded in forming a
social-liberal coalition with the FDP following the
1969 federal election, forcing the CDU out of power for the first time in its history. The CDU and CSU were highly critical of Chancellor
Willy Brandt's "change through rapprochement" policy towards the Eastern bloc
(Ostpolitik) and protested sharply against the 1970
treaties of Moscow and
Warsaw that renounced claims to the
former eastern territories of Germany and recognised the
Oder–Neisse line as Germany's eastern border. The Union parties had close ties with the
Heimatvertriebene associations (Germans who fled or were expelled from the eastern territories) who hoped for a return of or in these territories. Seven Bundestag members, including former vice chancellor
Erich Mende, defected from the FDP and SPD to the CDU in protest against these treaties, depriving Brandt of his majority, and providing a thin majority for the CDU and CSU. In April 1972, the CDU saw its chance to return to power, calling a
constructive vote of no confidence. CDU chairman
Rainer Barzel was almost certain to become the new Chancellor. But not all parliamentarians voted as expected (it was later revealed that two CDU/CSU deputies had been bribed by the East German
Stasi): Brandt won the vote and stayed in office. Thus, the CDU continued its role as
opposition for a total of thirteen years. In 1982, the FDP withdrew from the coalition with the SPD and allowed the CDU to regain power.
Kohl era (1982–1998) CDU Chairman
Helmut Kohl became the new Chancellor of West Germany and his CDU/CSU–FDP coalition was confirmed in the
1983 federal election. (left) with West German CDU leader Helmut Kohl in September 1990 After the
collapse of the East German government in 1989, Kohl—supported by the governments of the United States and
reluctantly by those of France and the United Kingdom—called for German reunification. On 3 October 1990, the government of East Germany was abolished and its territory acceded to the territory of the Basic Law already in place in West Germany. The
East German CDU merged with its West German counterpart and elections were held for the reunified country. Public support for the coalition's work in the process of German reunification was reiterated in the
1990 federal election in which the CDU–FDP governing coalition experienced a clear victory. Although Kohl was re-elected, the party began losing much of its popularity because of an economic recession in the former GDR and increased taxes in the west. The CDU was nonetheless able to win the
1994 federal election by a narrow margin thanks to an economic recovery. Kohl served as chairman until the party's electoral defeat in 1998, when he was succeeded by
Wolfgang Schäuble. In the
1998 federal election, the CDU polled 28.4% and the CSU 6.7% of the national vote, the lowest result for those parties since 1949; a
red–green coalition under the leadership of
Gerhard Schröder took power until 2005.
Merkel era (2000–2018) was the first female leader of the CDU and the third longest serving of the party overall, after Kohl and Adenauer. Schäuble resigned in early 2000 as a result of a party
financing scandal and was replaced by
Angela Merkel, the first woman and the first person from East Germany to lead the federal party. She remained the leader of the CDU for more than eighteen years. In the
2002 federal election, Merkel ceded the position of CDU/CSU's joint candidate for the chancellor's office to the leader of the sister party, Bavarian minister-president
Edmund Stoiber. CDU and CSU polled slightly higher (29.5% and 9.0%, respectively), but still lacked the majority needed for a CDU–FDP coalition government and stayed in opposition. In 2005, early elections were called after the CDU dealt the governing SPD a major blow, winning more than ten state elections, most of which were
landslide victories. The resulting grand coalition between the CDU/CSU and the SPD faced a serious challenge stemming from both parties' demand for the chancellorship. After three weeks of negotiations, the two parties reached a deal whereby CDU received the chancellorship while the SPD retained 8 of the 16 seats in the cabinet and a majority of the most prestigious cabinet posts. The coalition deal was approved by both parties at party conferences on 14 November. Merkel was confirmed as the first female Chancellor of Germany by the majority of delegates (397 to 217) in the newly assembled Bundestag on 22 November. Since her first term in office, from 2005 to 2009, there have been discussions if the CDU was still "sufficiently conservative" or if it was "social-democratising". In March 2009, Merkel answered with the statement "Sometimes I am liberal, sometimes I am conservative, sometimes I am Christian-social—and this is what defines the CDU." Although the CDU/CSU lost support in the
2009 federal elections, their "desired partner" the FDP experienced the best election cycle in its history, thereby enabling a CDU/CSU–FDP coalition. This marked the first change of coalition partner by a Chancellor in German history and the first centre-right coalition government since 1998. CDU candidate
Christian Wulff won the
2010 presidential election in the third ballot, while opposition candidate
Joachim Gauck (a Protestant pastor and former anti-communist activist in East Germany, who was favoured even by some CDU members) received a number of "faithless" votes from the government camp. The decisions to
suspend conscription (late 2010) and to phase out
nuclear energy (shortly after the
Fukushima disaster in 2011) broke with long-term principles of the CDU, moving the party into a more socially liberal direction and alienating some of its more conservative members and voters. At its November 2011 conference the party proposed a "wage floor", after having expressly rejected minimum wages during the previous years.
Psephologist and Merkel advisor Matthias Jung coined the term "asymmetric demobilisation" for the CDU's strategy (practised in the 2009, 2013 and 2017 campaigns) of adopting issues and positions close to its rivals, e.g. regarding social justice (SPD) and ecology (Greens), thus avoiding conflicts that might mobilise their potential supporters. Some of the promises in the CDU's 2013 election platform were seen as "overtaking the SPD on the left". While this strategy proved to be quite successful in elections, it also raised warnings that the CDU's profile would become "random", the party would lose its "essence" After talks with the Greens had failed, the CDU/CSU formed a new grand coalition with the SPD. Despite their long-cherished slogan of "There must be no democratically legitimised party to the right of CDU/CSU", the Union has had a serious competitor to its right since 2013. The right-wing populist
Alternative for Germany (AfD) was founded with the involvement of disgruntled CDU members. It drew on the discontent of some conservatives with the Merkel administration's handling of the
European debt crisis (2009–14) and later the
2015 refugee crisis, lamenting a purported loss of sovereignty and control or even "state failure". Nearly 10 percent of early AfD members were defectors from the CDU. In 2017, the Bundestag
voted to legalise
same-sex marriage. Merkel had allowed the
conscience vote to happen despite her personal objections. While she herself and the majority of the party's representatives voted against the proposal, a number of CDU deputies supported it. In the
2017 election, the CDU and CSU lost a large portion of their vote share: With 26.8 percent of party list votes, the CDU received its worst result since 1949, losing more than fifty seats in the Bundestag (despite an enlargement of the parliament). After failing to negotiate a coalition with the FDP and Greens, they continued their grand coalition with the SPD. In October 2018, Merkel announced that she would step down as leader of the CDU that December and not seek reelection, but wanted to remain as Chancellor until 2021.
Post-Merkel and Merz era (2018–present) On 7 December 2018,
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was
elected as federal chairwoman of the CDU. Kramp-Karrenbauer was considered Merkel's ideological successor, though holding more
socially conservative positions, such as opposition to
same-sex marriage. Kramp-Karrenbauer's election saw a rise in support for the CDU in national polling, and her personal popularity was initially high. However, she suffered a sharp decline in popularity in the lead-up to the
2019 European Parliament election, in which the CDU/CSU suffered its worst ever result in a national election with just 29%. Kramp-Karrenbauer thereafter remained one of the least popular politicians nationally. The CSU's
Manfred Weber was the
Spitzenkandidat for the
European People's Party in the 2019 European Parliament election. However, the EPP group ultimately nominated the CDU's
Ursula von der Leyen as their candidate for
President of the European Commission; she was elected in July 2019, becoming the first woman to hold the office. Kramp-Karrenbauer resigned as party chair on 10 February 2020, in the midst of the
2020 Thuringian government crisis. The Thuringian CDU had been perceived as cooperating with the
Alternative for Germany (AfD) to prevent the election of a left-wing government, breaching the long-standing taboo in Germany surrounding cooperation with the
far-right. Kramp-Karrenbauer was perceived as unable to enforce discipline within the party during the crisis, which she claimed was complicated by unclear positions within the party regarding cooperation with the AfD and
The Left, which party statute holds to be equally unacceptable. While the Thuringia crisis was the immediate trigger for Kramp-Karrenbauer's resignation, she stated the decision had "matured some time ago", and media attributed it to the troubled development of her brief leadership. Kramp-Karrenbauer remained in office as Minister of Defence and interim party leader from February until
the leadership election was held in January 2021. Originally scheduled for April 2020, it was delayed multiple times due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, and was ultimately held online. Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia
Armin Laschet won the election with 52.8% of delegate votes. His main opponent
Friedrich Merz, was seen as more right-wing, who won 47.2% of vote; Merz had also run against Kramp-Karrenbauer in 2018 and been defeated. Laschet's election was seen as an affirmation of Merkel's leadership and the CDU's centrist orientation. On 7 October 2021, Armin Laschet, signaled that he would step down after a disastrous
general election result, with the CDU suffering its worst ever general election result. A
new leadership election was called in December and
Friedrich Merz, of the right-wing faction of the CDU, was elected by a large majority of 62.1% of voters, defeating pro-Merkel candidates
Norbert Röttgen and
Helge Braun. The Congress of the CDU officially elected Merz as new party Chairman on 22 January 2022, and he assumed office on 31 January 2022. In the
2024 European parliament election, the CDU remained the largest party in Germany, winning 30.0% of the vote in a combined list with the CSU, led by CSU MEP
Manfred Weber. The combined list held on to all 29 seats, with the CDU maintaining 23 seats while the CSU had the remaining 6 seats. In October 2024, CDU again became proponents of
nuclear energy, advocating reactivation of closed reactors and construction of new plants. The CDU contested the
2025 German federal election with
Friedrich Merz as their
chancellor candidate. Their manifesto signalled a shift to the right on immigration as well as increased
support for Ukraine. The CDU eventually won the election, gaining 12 seats. Following the election results, the CDU began negotiations with the SPD to form another grand coalition. In May 2025, Friedrich Merz, leader of the CDU, formed a coalition government between the CDU/CSU and the SPD (
grand coalition). Co-leader of the SPD,
Lars Klingbeil, became vice chancellor and finance minister of the new government. == Ideology and platform ==