Konrad Adenauer Biography and Works.

Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was born on January 5, 1876 in Cologne to Catholic lawyer Konrad Adenauer and Helene. He studied law in Freiburg, Munich and Bonn. He married Emma Weyer in 1904. The couple had three children.

He was elected to the Cologne city council in 1906. He was elected as the Mayor of Cologne in 1917. In 1944, after they attempted Hitler’s assassination, Adenauer was arrested and was put in a concentration camp.

In 1945, he restored as Cologne Mayor by the Americans. However, he was removed from office by the British in October 1945.

In 1949, Adenauer was elected as a representative in the German Bundestag (Parliament).

He became Germany’s first Federal Chancellor, winning office by just one vote. He remained as the Chancellor for 14 years and died on April 19, 1967.

Trivia

In February 1983, Adenauer refused to receive Hitler during a campaign visit to Cologne and got Nazi flags removed from the Deutzer bridge.

In 1934, they arrested Adenauer but released him after two days.

Quote

“We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon.”