Adenauer

Critical Acclaim for ADENAUER "A gripping narrative . . . brings to life an intriguing historical figure . . . an enthralling perspective on the processes that shaped the postwar world." --Daily Telegraph (London) "Charts the ironies of Adenauer's complicated life. This is the story of a marathon man, but it is narrated at the pace of a sprinter and with the elegance of a hurdler."--The Times (London) "Lucid and engaging. This is a well-researched and elegantly written volume which deserves a wider readership than the purely political."--The Herald (Glasgow) "A highly readable, thoroughly reliable, intelligently critical life-and-times. . . . This portrait does justice to a man who is often invoked as a prophet of a United States of Europe, but who was in truth the greatest of German patriots."--Literary Review (London) "Well-researched and admirably written . . . reveals Adenauer the man--with all his authority and strength, his persistence and endurance, and his streak of ruthlessness and political cunning."--The Independent (London) THE LAST GREAT FRENCHMAN "Knowledgeable, lucid . . . the best English biography of de Gaulle."--The New York Times Book Review "Charles Williams has matched a great subject by something near to a great book."--Daily Telegraph (London)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS viii PREFACE x PART ONE: The Kaiser’s Germany 1 COLOGNE: 1876 3 2 ‘GAUDEAMUS IGITUR JUVENES DUM SUMUS’ 15 3 THE END OF YOUTH 31 4 THE LADDER OF AMBITION 45 5 A TIME OF TRAGEDY 60 6 THE MANAGEMENT OF DEFEAT 75 PART TWO: Weimar Germany 1 THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 95 2 LIFE HAS TO GO ON 111 3 THE REPARATIONS CR I S I S 126 4 1923 140 5 COLOGNE I S FREE! 157 6 THE PRIVATE AND PUBLIC MAYOR 172 7 DUBIOUS MANOEUVRES 186 8 CONFRONTATION 203 PART THREE: Hitler’s Germany 1 DESCENT INTO DARKNESS 215 2 THEY START TO CLOSE IN 229 3 HE NO LONGER MATTERS 241 4 KEEPING OUT OF TROUBLE 253 5 A QUIET WAR 266 6 ‘THE WAR I S OVER! ’ 276 PART FOUR: Adenauer’s Germany 1 SACKED BY THE BRITISH 293 2 ANOTHER POLITICAL BIRTH – ANOTHER PERSONAL DEATH 307 3 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW GERMANY 323 4 THE FEDERAL CHANCELLOR 344 5 BUILDING EUROPE – AND FACING THE BEAR 362 6 AT HOME AND AT WORK 380 7 POLITICS IS AN ART – NOT A SCIENCE 392 8 WHERE DOES GERMANY STAND? 410 9 CAN ANYONE BE TRUSTED? 424 10 ENTER THE GENERAL 446 11 KHRUSHCHEV’ S CHALLENGE 465 12 THREATS AND COUNTER-THREATS 486 13 FROM TRIUMPH TO DISMISSAL 503 14 FINALE 524 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 539 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 542 NOTES 546 INDEX 570