My Work on the CDU Party

My Work on the CDU Party

The CDU is a federally organized party and has the second largest amount of members throughout Germany. The CDU is also known as the union in the Bundestag.(1)

Immediately after World War II and the Nazi regime had fallen, Germany was in need of a new political organization. So, the CDU was established in Berlin on June 26, 1945, along wtih Rhineland and Westfalen.(2)Within the CDU's first two decades it was the most dominate party following the establishment of West Germany in 1949. After the fall of East Germany in the late 1980's, Kohl was supported by France, United Kingdom, and the United States which was called German reunification. On 3 October 1990, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was abolished and its territory re-annexed by West Germany. The East German CDU merged with its West German counterpart, and elections were held for the reunified country.(2)

In my studies today, I examined the realm of their purported stance on various issues. For instance,  the group is greatly focused on education. They feel that knowledge is one of the key components to have a civilization develop as a whole.  They also feel that schooling should teach values and virtues held by religious institutions, teaching spirituality to ultimately yield growth (3)

Group Interactions

We had a fairly large group, so we split upon different sections. Everyone participated in finding research on their own smaller topic. However, due to some work related issues emailing was the main source to getting our information across to each other and  only three of us came together to create a PowerPoint and put everything together.

My Thoughts

The CDU reminds me much like what we have here in America. It seems they have the right ideas for their citizens, but in a sort of odd way. For example, the Junge Union, a special organization within the CDU, only allows members to be within the age rages of 14 and 35. Well, beings 14 is pretty young and 35 is much older, as you know younger children in there teens either don't know whats going on at all or little say in what they think because so much power is held by the older adults. However, they do like to have education be a big part which is critical for the up coming leaders of the party.

Sources

Last accessed: September 19, 2012

(1)http://www.cdu.de/en/3440.htm

(2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Democratic_Union_(Germany)#Special_organizations

(3)http://www.cdu.de/en/3440.htm

CDU/Special Organizations

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1G-3jbgZplOGSBL5rKuD7Q03LjT0nVC0iI8tP7J64voY/edit

Special Organizations

·       Junge Union

“Young Union” of Germany is the combined youth organization of the two conservative German political parties CDU and CSU.  Membership of this organization may only be between 14 and 35 years of age. It defines itself as an organization that aims at increasing awareness about the CDU/CSU’s political goals and representing other interests .

·       Christian Democratic Employees Association (CDA)

The CDA was created after WWII by the Christian trade unionist. The official establishment of the CDA was in 1946. The CDA today covers pension, health and family policy, in addition to labor and social policy.

·       Evangelical Working Group

The EAK was founded in 1952. Today, the EAK’s role is facilitating contact with Protestant churches and their members. The actual trigger for the formation of the EAK was the dispute between Konrad Adenauer and Gustav Heinemann, a leading Protestant-evangelical member of the Christian-democrats (CDU) at that time, on the issue of rearmament. Heinemann, who opposed the rearmament of (western) Germany for religious and conscience reasons, had resigned as interior minister. He had formed the All-German People’s Party (Gesamtdeutsche Volkspartei which was seen as a serious challenge to the CDU. Heinemann was also provost of the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany and also one of the leading Protestant representatives in Germany. This alarmed the Protestant Union politicians. The failure of the Gesamtdeutschen Volkspartei of the election in 1953 was seen by the CDU as a success of the newly formed EAK.

·       Association of Christian Democratic Students (Ring of Christian Democratic Students)

This is a German student organization founded in 1951. The RCDS is the largest and oldest existing political student association in Germany. Its focus was initially in the former Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ). After the student councils fell apart in the GDR and the Free German You was declared the only support focused CDH groups work increasingly to the Federal Republic and Berlin. Many fled from the Soviet Zone and GDR activists so they then found new university groups in the West. In 1951 it was named the Christian Democratic Students.

Sources:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Democratic_Union_(Germany)#Special_organizations September 15,2012

Saarland Project

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