History
Both the CDU and the CSU were established after World War II and share a perspective based on Christian democracy and conservatism, and hold the dominant centre-right position in the German political spectrum. The CSU is usually considered the de-facto successor of the Weimar republic era Bavarian People's Party, which itself broke away from the all-German Catholic Centre Party after World War I. The CDU's foundation however was the result of a major reorganisation of the center-right political camp compared to the Weimar Republic. Though the CDU was largely built as the de-facto successor the Catholic Center Party, it successfully opened out to non-catholic Christians, many of them affiliated with the German People's Party until 1933, and successfully asserted itself as the only major conservative party (outside of Bavaria) against initial competition from other catholic, Protestant or nationalist conservative parties during the early years of the Federal Republic. However, the CDU was and still is significantly stronger in catholic dominated areas than in Protestant areas of Germany.
Read more about this topic: CDU/CSU
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“I believe that history has shape, order, and meaning; that exceptional men, as much as economic forces, produce change; and that passé abstractions like beauty, nobility, and greatness have a shifting but continuing validity.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what fatal indulgence of subordinate views and passions, a contest for an atom had defeated well founded prospects of giving liberty to half the globe.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)