Member State: Germany
Political Party: Christian Democratic Union
Date of birth: 5 June 1876
Died: 20 April 1967

Adenauer was a lawyer who became mayor of Cologne in 1917. He was removed from that post in 1933 when the Nazis came to power. In 1944, he was arrested by the Gestapo for connections in a bomb plot against Hitler. 

After WWII, he founded the Christian Democratic Union and in 1949 was elected the first chancellor of West Germany. He led his country in its post-war reconstruction and sought close ties with both the United States and France. In 1962, Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle signed a treaty of friendship between France and Germany. Under Adenauer’s leadership, Germany joined the Council of Europe (1951), the European Coal and Steel Community (1952) and NATO (1955).

Adenauer retired as chancellor in 1963.