“Es sind Deutsche, in unseren Augen sowjetische Satelliten...”: Christdemokratische Grundwerte der Adenauer-CDU im Spiegel der deutsch-deutschen Teilung und in Ableitung auf den realsozialistischen Osten (1945 bis 1966)

Abstract

The dissertation of Karolina Lang-Vöge is entitled “‘They are Germans, from our point of view, Soviet satellites... ’ : Christian democratic values in the Adenauer-CDU reflected by the division of Germany and in regard with the socialistic East (1945 until 1966)”. The dissertation focuses on the perception of the USSR that dominated the socialist Eastern bloc in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by Konrad Adenauer. Therefore, the years 1945 to 1966 are of importance in this research since during these years Konrad Adenauer became the leading figure of the CDU. He was able to continue as the leading figure and was federal chairman until March 1966. The dissertation seeks to decode the CDU's anti- communism and anti- socialism contrasting it with its ideal, the Christian idea of man. The circumstance of the party using anti-communism as a powerful means of integration has not been analyzed in detail yet. This dissertation focuses on this particular blind spot in research. The research intends to disclose the phenomenon of the Christian democratic anti- communism during the division of Germany and the perception of this division in the Adenauer-CDU. Furthermore the perceptions of other socialistic states within the CDU are being analyzed. As a result of the research there is a clear connection between the reception of the East and the values of the CDU which were inspired by Christianity. The dissertation also presents the impact and the facets of anti- communism as a means of integration and cohesion within the party. In order to become and to be, the western CDU needed the eastern communism. At the same time its anti- eastern attitude pointed out its own cultural and historic roots which could be seen in the Catholic and Protestant formations of German parties in the 19th and 20th century. The author used the key terms dignity, freedom, state, right and truth, nation, duty, Christian in the West and Anti-Christian in the East as leading terms imagestructuring the dissertation. The research is based on a broad variety of resources, such as reports of factional and extern communication, committee minutes, press releases, biographic and autobiographic sources.