Key Events: Konrad Adenauer

DATE

EVENTS

1876	Born January 5 near Cologne.
1894-1901	Studies law and economics.
1906	Joins the Centre Party.
1917-1933	Mayor of Cologne.
1921-1933	President of the Prussian state council.
1933	After the coming to power of the Nazis Adenauer is dismissed as mayor of Cologne and is briefly imprisoned.
1944	Briefly imprisoned for a second time after the July Plot to assassinate Hitler.
1945	May. Reinstated as mayor of Cologne by American occupation forces. September. Co-founds the Christian Democratic Party (CDP) in Rhineland. October. British occupation authorities dismiss Adenauer as mayor.
1946	Elected chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
1948/49	Chairman of the parliamentary council, in which office Adenauer works on the Basic Law, the foundation of the new government of West Germany.
1949	Elected first chancellor of West Germany.
1951	March. Adenauer becomes foreign minister. April. Signs the Treaty of Paris establishing the European Coal and Steel Community.
1955	May. Takes West Germany into NATO. June. Gives up office of foreign minister. September. State visit to Moscow.
1957	Signs the Treaty of Rome, making West Germany a founder member of the European Economic Community (EEC).
1961	August. Construction of the Berlin Wall, separating East and West Berlin. September. CDU loses its majority in the Bundestag.
1963	Adenauer resigns as chancellor.
1967	Adenauer dies April 19 in Rhöndorf bei Bonn.