CDU

CDU (Christlich-Demokratische Union, Christian Democratic Union) A German political party founded in 1945 as a broad interdenominational Christian Democratic party. In Eastern Germany, it was subjected to Communist control by 1948, from which it only managed to liberate itself in 1990, before it became the principal party of government to emerge from East Germany's first and last free national elections. In West Germany, together with its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, it narrowly won the first national elections of 1949. The CDU/CSU won the 1953 elections with 49.9 per cent of the popular vote, and in 1957 they won an absolute majority (50.2 per cent), an unrivalled achievement. It provided West Germany's first three Chancellors: Adenauer, Erhard, and Kiesinger. During this time, the party put into practice the social market economy, a capitalist economic system in which the state actively regulates the framework in which market forces operate in an effort to minimize their negative side effects (monopolies, social inequality, etc.). The CDU tied Germany politically and militarily to the West, as Germany joined NATO in 1955 and the EEC in 1957. Defeated in the 1969 elections by the SPD, it was led by Kohl from 1973, under whom the party won in national elections, 1983–95, enabling it to rule in coalition with the Liberal Party.

The CDU has sought to be a ‘people's party’, representing all sections of society, though it has been traditionally strong in Roman Catholic and rural areas, and it has been more popular among businessmen, the self-employed, professionals, and white-collar employees than among manual workers. The CDU lost the 1998 elections, in which it achieved its worst result since 1949. The following year, it was hit by a corruption scandal involving illegal payments to Kohl and high-ranking party officials. During the 1990s, the CDU was affected by an erosion of its loyal, Catholic voter base, so that it relied much more on the volatile support of shifting voters.

http://www.cdu.de