Misplaced Pages

#458541

131-666: The organisation stands politically near the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union , two conservative German political parties. It is one of five founding members of the European Democrat Students , which arose from cooperation between RCDS and Swedish students that started in 1958 at RCDS's annual meeting in West Berlin . The work field primarily important for the RCDS

262-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it

393-402: A second language , and 75–100   million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220   million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90   million people, or 16% of

524-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become

655-495: A "wage floor", after having expressly rejected minimum wages during the previous years. Psephologist and Merkel advisor Matthias Jung coined the term "asymmetric demobilisation" for the CDU's strategy (practised in the 2009, 2013 and 2017 campaigns) of adopting issues and positions close to its rivals, e.g. regarding social justice (SPD) and ecology (Greens), thus avoiding conflicts that might mobilise their potential supporters. Some of

786-540: A CDU/CSU–FDP coalition. This marked the first change of coalition partner by a Chancellor in German history and the first centre-right coalition government since 1998. CDU candidate Christian Wulff won the 2010 presidential election in the third ballot, while opposition candidate Joachim Gauck (a Protestant pastor and former anti-communist activist in East Germany, who was favoured even by some CDU members) received

917-732: A common youth organisation, the Junge Union , a common pupil organisation, the Schüler Union Deutschlands  [ de ] , a common student organisation, the Ring Christlich-Demokratischer Studenten and a common Mittelstand organisation, the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsvereinigung  [ de ] . The CDU and CSU are legally and organisationally separate parties; their ideological differences are sometimes

1048-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from

1179-474: A matter in a similar fashion as the Young Union. The federal association conciliates the work of the groups and is responsible for expressing student interests on the federal policy level. Furthermore, the federal association organizes seminars, congresses and other events. It also initiates nationwide actions and campaigns and publishes information documents and engages with subjects that are essential to

1310-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained

1441-464: A number of "faithless" votes from the government camp. The decisions to suspend conscription (late 2010) and to phase out nuclear energy (shortly after the Fukushima disaster in 2011) broke with long-term principles of the CDU, moving the party into a more socially liberal direction and alienating some of its more conservative members and voters. At its November 2011 conference the party proposed

SECTION 10

#1732783259459

1572-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In

1703-437: A result, the party claims to represent "Christian-social, liberal and conservative" elements. The CDU is generally pro-European in outlook. Black is the party's customary and historical electoral colour. Other colours include red for the logo, orange for the flag, and black-red-gold for the corporate design. Since the election defeat in the 2021 federal election, the CDU is in opposition at federal level. It previously led

1834-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it

1965-471: A rise in support for the CDU in national polling, and her personal popularity was initially high. However, she suffered a sharp decline in popularity in the lead-up to the 2019 European Parliament election , in which the CDU/CSU suffered its worst ever result in a national election with just 29%. Kramp-Karrenbauer thereafter remained one of the least popular politicians nationally. The CSU's Manfred Weber

2096-649: A source of conflict. The most notable and serious such incident was in 1976, when the CSU under Franz Josef Strauß ended the alliance with the CDU at a party conference in Wildbad Kreuth. This decision was reversed shortly thereafter when the CDU threatened to run candidates against the CSU in Bavaria. The relationship of CDU to the CSU has historic parallels to previous Christian-democratic parties in Germany, with

2227-486: A stipend as well as how to spend a semester or the whole course of studies abroad. The values of the RCDS are based on the inviolable, inalienable human dignity. Given this foundation, the RCDS supports liberty, justice, responsibility, tolerance and efficiency. The RCDS is joinable for every university student that represents himself supportive of the Liberal Democratic Basic Order, the idea of

2358-409: A student movement the RCDS was despised ever again. Only with the beginning of the 1990s the RCDS got a chance of rising as student representatives again because former dominating politically left oriented student associations (German: MSB; SHB; RSG) collapsed. In the pivotal year of 1990 the RCDS began founding university groups in the new states of Germany as well. In April 2008 the RCDS established

2489-584: A total of thirteen years. In 1982, the FDP withdrew from the coalition with the SPD and allowed the CDU to regain power. CDU Chairman Helmut Kohl became the new Chancellor of West Germany and his CDU/CSU–FDP coalition was confirmed in the 1983 federal election . After the collapse of the East German government in 1989, Kohl—supported by the governments of the United States and reluctantly by those of France and

2620-403: A university should be declined for nobody because of a lack of financial means. Every person should be able to study at a university and recuperate an academic title. The centralization of the allocation of places in higher education is not promoted by the RCDS as universities should be at liberty also in the choice of students for their particular university or faculty. The RCDS strongly recommends

2751-524: A variety of religions as well as non-religious individuals. The CDU's policies derive from political Catholicism , Catholic social teaching and political Protestantism as well as economic liberalism and national conservatism . The party has adopted more liberal economic policies since Helmut Kohl 's term in office as the Chancellor of Germany (1982–1998). As a conservative party, the CDU supports stronger punishments of crimes and involvement on

SECTION 20

#1732783259459

2882-516: Is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany . It is the major party of the centre-right in German politics . Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 January 2022. The CDU is the second largest party in the Bundestag , the German federal legislature, with 152 out of 736 seats, having won 18.9% of votes in the 2021 federal election . It forms

3013-462: Is a political association that belongs to the CDU/ CSU, the RCDS has the status of an allied organization and is therefore institutionally independent. The majority of the RCDS group chairmen as well as regional and federal chairmen are co-opted members from the executive boards of the CDU and the CSU on the respective organizational levels. Hence, the RCDS effectively grants the right to have a say in

3144-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as

3275-612: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German

3406-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic

3537-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German

3668-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25   million speak it as

3799-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in

3930-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as

4061-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are

Association of Christian Democratic Students - Misplaced Pages Continue

4192-665: Is mostly funded by taxpayer money. Both the CDU and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) originated after World War II, sharing a concern for the Christian worldview. In the Bundestag, the CDU is represented in a common faction with the CSU. This faction is called CDU/CSU , or informally the Union. Its basis is a binding agreement known as a Fraktionsvertrag between the two parties. The CDU and CSU share

4323-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and

4454-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as

4585-486: Is ongoing tolerance or cooperation of CDU at the local and district level with the right-wing radical AfD. CDU-head Friedrich Merz polarizes with political approaches to the AfD and called the CDU in 2023 one «Alternative with substance». Political observers from abroad say that the CDU's boundaries to the far-right are eroding. The party congress is the highest organ of the CDU. It meets at least every two years, determines

4716-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German

4847-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c.  1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period

4978-776: Is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ),

5109-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish

5240-433: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers

5371-443: Is university policies: promoting the students self administration and working towards a responsible distribution of financial means of universities is a main aim. As education is the most important trait people can accomplish, the RCDS promotes exchanges of university places and makes access available to book and internship markets. Moreover, the RCDS regularly informs students about important information such as how to apply for BAföG or

Association of Christian Democratic Students - Misplaced Pages Continue

5502-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to

5633-471: The Heimatvertriebene associations (Germans who fled or were expelled from the eastern territories) who hoped for a return of or in these territories. Seven Bundestag members, including former vice chancellor Erich Mende , defected from the FDP and SPD to the CDU in protest against these treaties, depriving Brandt of his majority, and providing a thin majority for the CDU and CSU. In April 1972,

5764-495: The 2020 Thuringian government crisis . The Thuringian CDU had been perceived as cooperating with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) to prevent the election of a left-wing government, breaching the long-standing taboo in Germany surrounding cooperation with the far-right. Kramp-Karrenbauer was perceived as unable to enforce discipline within the party during the crisis, which she claimed was complicated by unclear positions within

5895-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as

6026-581: The CDU/CSU Bundestag faction, also known as the Union, with its Bavarian counterpart, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). The group's parliamentary leader is also Friedrich Merz . Founded in 1945 as an interdenominational Christian party, the CDU effectively succeeded the pre-war Catholic Centre Party , with many former members joining the party, including its first leader Konrad Adenauer . The party also included politicians of other backgrounds, including liberals and conservatives. As

6157-568: The Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German

6288-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share

6419-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language

6550-525: The European Union , the party opposes the entry of Turkey, preferring instead a privileged partnership. In addition to citing various human rights violations, the CDU also believes that Turkey's unwillingness to recognise Cyprus as an independent sovereign state contradicts the European Union policy that its members must recognise the existence of one another. The CDU has governed in four federal-level and numerous state-level Grand Coalitions with

6681-522: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout

SECTION 50

#1732783259459

6812-746: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in

6943-677: The International Democracy Union , and the European People's Party (EPP). It is the largest party in the EPP with 23 MEPs . Ursula von der Leyen , the current President of the European Commission , is also a member of the CDU. Immediately following the end of World War II and the foreign occupation of Germany , simultaneous yet unrelated meetings began occurring throughout the country, each with

7074-666: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c.  765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in

7205-563: The Social Democratic Party (SPD) as well as in state and local-level coalitions with the Alliance 90/The Greens . The CDU has an official party congress adjudication that prohibits coalitions and any sort of cooperation with either The Left or the Alternative for Germany . CDU officially prohibits any cooperation with the AfD , but does not clearly define what that means. In the eastern federal states , however, there

7336-676: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung

7467-550: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit.   ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this

7598-513: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and   Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German

7729-416: The federal government from 1949 to 1969, 1982 to 1998, and 2005 to 2021. Germany's three longest-serving post-war Chancellors have all come from the CDU, more specifically: Helmut Kohl (1982–1998), Angela Merkel (2005–2021), and Konrad Adenauer (1949–1963). The party also currently leads the governments of six of Germany's sixteen states . The CDU is a member of the Centrist Democrat International ,

7860-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from

7991-430: The "dominant culture" imply "tolerance and living together". According to party analyst Stephan Eisel, her avoiding the values issue may have had the opposite effect as she failed to mobilize the party's core constituency. The CDU applies the principles of Christian democracy and emphasizes the "Christian understanding of humans and their responsibility toward God". However, CDU membership consists of people adhering to

SECTION 60

#1732783259459

8122-441: The 1960s (see Vergangenheitsbewältigung ), the CDU attracted conservative , anti-communist , former Nazis as well as Nazi collaborators into its higher ranks (like Hans Globke and Theodor Oberländer but also future CDU chairman and West German chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger ). A prominent member was theologian Eugen Gerstenmaier , who became Acting Chairman of the Foreign Board (1949–1969). The result of these meetings

8253-547: The CDU officially elected Merz as new party Chairman on 22 January 2022, and he assumed office on 31 January 2022. In October 2024, CDU again became proponents of nuclear energy , advocating reactivation of closed reactors and construction of new plants. Defunct Defunct In her 2005 campaign, Angela Merkel was unwilling to express explicitly Christian views while maintaining that her party had never lost its concept of values. Merkel and Bundestag President Norbert Lammert have been keen to clarify that CDU references to

8384-404: The CDU saw its chance to return to power, calling a constructive vote of no confidence . CDU chairman Rainer Barzel was almost certain to become the new Chancellor. But not all parliamentarians voted as expected (it was later revealed that two CDU/CSU deputies had been bribed by the East German Stasi ): Brandt won the vote and stayed in office. Thus, the CDU continued its role as opposition for

8515-415: The CDU supported, reluctantly, nonpartisan candidate Joachim Gauck. The CDU/CSU–FDP coalition lasted until the 2013 federal election , when the FDP lost all its seats in the Bundestag while the CDU and CSU won their best result since 1990, only a few seats short of an absolute majority. This was partly due to the CDU's expansion of voter base to all socio-structural groups (class, age or gender), partly due to

8646-425: The CDU was still "sufficiently conservative" or if it was "social-democratising". In March 2009, Merkel answered with the statement "Sometimes I am liberal, sometimes I am conservative, sometimes I am Christian-social—and this is what defines the CDU." Although the CDU/CSU lost support in the 2009 federal elections , their "desired partner" the FDP experienced the best election cycle in its history, thereby enabling

8777-487: The CDU. It is named after the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and first president of the CDU. The foundation offers political education, conducts scientific fact-finding research for political projects, grants scholarships to gifted individuals, researches the history of Christian democracy and supports and encourages European unification , international understanding and development-policy cooperation. Its annual budget amounts to around 120 million euro and

8908-435: The Catholic Centre Party having served as a national Catholic party throughout the German Empire and the Weimar Republic while the Bavarian People's Party functioning as the Bavarian variant. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It

9039-404: The Christian conception of mankind and the above-mentioned. The RCDS supports the idea of a society in which people have the opportunity to free self-actualization and with that the chance of an active, social commitment to the community and overall society. The RCDS as an organization commits itself to the European maxim United in Diversity. The RCDS pleads for pan-European studying as well as for

9170-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In

9301-479: The European Higher Education Area. The RCDS supports the social market economy in which the country should serve a competitive environment. For the enhancement of universities this means that the state should provide every university with adequate financial means because every university place is a positive investment in the future development of Germany and Europe. Everyone has the right of education and everyone needs to have access to educational institutions such as

9432-532: The FDP and Greens, they continued their grand coalition with the SPD. In October 2018, Merkel announced that she would step down as leader of the CDU that December and not seek reelection, but wanted to remain as Chancellor until 2021. On 7 December 2018, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected as federal chairwoman of the CDU. Kramp-Karrenbauer was considered Merkel's ideological successor, though holding more socially conservative positions, such as opposition to same-sex marriage . Kramp-Karrenbauer's election saw

9563-655: The Federal Republic of Germany and the city of Berlin. Many of the activists that were forced to shun the Sowjet Occupation Zone or the GDR established new university groups in the west of Germany which incorporated themselves since 1951 being the Association of Christian Democratic Students. However, at universities of West Germany the RCDS at first had no major influence as doing "party politics"

9694-748: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of

9825-483: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of

9956-451: The German states; the invention of the printing press c.  1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of

10087-681: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by

10218-655: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are

10349-518: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c.  thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c.  1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy

10480-516: The RCDS find themselves in the Association of Christian Democratic Academics (RCDA). The federal association of the RCDA has been founded in 1991 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the RCDS. Though, some isolated local RCDA groups such as in Göttingen have been around for much longer. The association is currently being led by a federal board consisting of four members. The first RCDS Federation

10611-408: The RCDS. The federal association is represented both internally and externally by an executive board consisting of three members which is elected for a year by the assembly of national delegates. Thereby, the federal association receives support from up to four elected assessors as well as through the advisory council and if applicable through a committee of experts and other specialists. The alumni of

10742-607: The Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Many Christian democratic student representatives just as Werner Neumann (1946), Georg Wrazidlo (1947) or Hanns Beitz (1948) got arbitrarily arrested. After the student councils got abolished in the GDR (German: DDR) and the Free German Youth got elected as the exclusive representation of interests, the CDH university groups relocated their main field of work in centering on

10873-583: The United Kingdom—called for German reunification. On 3 October 1990, the government of East Germany was abolished and its territory acceded to the territory of the Basic Law already in place in West Germany. The East German CDU merged with its West German counterpart and elections were held for the reunified country. Public support for the coalition's work in the process of German reunification

11004-532: The Western alliance made it harder to attract Protestant voters to the party, as most refugees from the former German territories east of the Oder river were of that faith, as were the majority of the inhabitants of East Germany . Therefore, the CDU was the dominant political party for the first two decades following the establishment of West Germany in 1949. The durable alliance that the party had established with

11135-425: The basic lines of CDU policy, approves the party program and decides on the statutes of the CDU. The CDU party congress consists of the delegates of the CDU regional associations, the foreign associations and the honorary chairmen . The state associations send exactly 1,000 delegates who have to be elected by the state or district conventions. The number of delegates that a regional association can send depends on

11266-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with

11397-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in

11528-583: The discontent of some conservatives with the Merkel administration's handling of the European debt crisis (2009–14) and later the 2015 refugee crisis , lamenting a purported loss of sovereignty and control or even "state failure". Nearly 10 percent of early AfD members were defectors from the CDU. In 2017, the Bundestag voted to legalise same-sex marriage . Merkel had allowed the conscience vote to happen despite her personal objections. While she herself and

11659-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of

11790-634: The expense of concessions to the Soviet Union (USSR), depicting Adenauer as an instrument of both the Americans and the Vatican . The Western powers appreciated the CDU's right-ward slant, its commitment to capitalism, and its value as a pivotal oppositional force to the communists, thereby keeping consistent with US/UK foreign policy. In addition, Adenauer was also trusted by the British. However,

11921-423: The federal party congress. For this reason it is often called a small party congress . The CDU federal executive heads the federal party. It implements the resolutions of the federal party congress and the federal committee and convenes the federal party congress. The CDU Presidium is responsible for executing the resolutions of the federal executive committee and handling current and urgent business. It consists of

12052-515: The first Chairman of the party. In the beginning, it was not clear which party would be favored by the victors of World War II , but by the end of the 1940s the governments of the United States and of the United Kingdom began to lean more toward the CDU and significantly away from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), especially due to geopolitical reasons. The latter was more nationalist and sought German reunification even at

12183-533: The first time in its history. The CDU and CSU were highly critical of Chancellor Willy Brandt 's "change through rapprochement" policy towards the Eastern bloc ( Ostpolitik ) and protested sharply against the 1970 treaties of Moscow and Warsaw that renounced claims to the former eastern territories of Germany and recognised the Oder–Neisse line as Germany's eastern border. The Union parties had close ties with

12314-426: The first woman and the first person from East Germany to lead the federal party. She remained the leader of the CDU for more than eighteen years. In the 2002 federal election , Merkel ceded the position of CDU/CSU's joint candidate for the chancellor's office to the leader of the sister party, Bavarian minister-president Edmund Stoiber . CDU and CSU polled slightly higher (29.5% and 9.0%, respectively), but still lacked

12445-402: The governing coalition in 1966 due to disagreements over fiscal and economic policy, Erhard was forced to resign. Consequently, a grand coalition with the SPD took over government under CDU Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger . The SPD quickly gained popularity and succeeded in forming a social-liberal coalition with the FDP following the 1969 federal election , forcing the CDU out of power for

12576-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,

12707-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of

12838-927: The intention of planning a Christian-democratic party. Consequently, the CDU was established in Berlin on 26 June 1945 and in Rheinland and Westfalen in September of the same year. The founding members of the CDU consisted primarily of former members of the Centre Party , the German Democratic Party , the German National People's Party , and the German People's Party . In the Cold War , years after World War II up to

12969-415: The introduction of an ERASMUS loan is demanded. By the afore mentioned means the mobility of students and trainees within Europe should be increased. To support foreign students in Germany it would be advantageous to upgrade the typical orientation weeks at universities, expand the so-called "Buddy-Programs" as well as the general offer of foreign language courses at universities. Unlike the Young Union which

13100-634: The leadership election was held in January 2021. Originally scheduled for April 2020, it was delayed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic , and was ultimately held online. Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia Armin Laschet won the election with 52.8% of delegate votes. His main opponent Friedrich Merz , was seen as more right-wing, who won 47.2% of vote; Merz had also run against Kramp-Karrenbauer in 2018 and been defeated. Laschet's election

13231-408: The leading members of the federal executive board and is not an organ of the CDU in Germany. Before 1966, membership totals in the CDU organisation were only estimated. The numbers after 1966 are based on the total from 31 December of the previous year. In 2023, the CDU had 363.101 members. Notable suborganisations of the CDU are the following: The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is the think-tank of

13362-509: The liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) as the leading tandem of several federal governments, and, implicitly, the strong partnership between Chancellor Adenauer and President Theodor Heuss enabled West Germany to thoroughly rebuild itself in the wake of World War II. Adenauer remained the party's leader until 1963, when former Minister of Economics Ludwig Erhard replaced him. As the Free Democratic Party (FDP) withdrew from

13493-434: The majority needed for a CDU–FDP coalition government and stayed in opposition. In 2005, early elections were called after the CDU dealt the governing SPD a major blow, winning more than ten state elections, most of which were landslide victories . The resulting grand coalition between the CDU/CSU and the SPD faced a serious challenge stemming from both parties' demand for the chancellorship. After three weeks of negotiations,

13624-411: The majority of the party's representatives voted against the proposal, a number of CDU deputies supported it. In the 2017 election , the CDU and CSU lost a large portion of their voteshare: With 26.8 percent of party list votes, the CDU received its worst result since 1949, losing more than fifty seats in the Bundestag (despite an enlargement of the parliament). After failing to negotiate a coalition with

13755-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted

13886-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from

14017-451: The number of members of the association six months before the party congress and the result of the last federal election in the respective federal state. The foreign associations recognized by the federal executive committee each send a delegate to the party congress, regardless of their number of members. The federal committee is the second highest body and deals with all political and organizational matters that are not expressly reserved for

14148-475: The part of the Bundeswehr in cases of domestic anti-terrorism offensives. In terms of immigrants, the CDU supports initiatives to integrate immigrants through language courses and aims to further control immigration. Dual citizenship should only be allowed in exceptional cases. In terms of foreign policy , the CDU commits itself to European integration and a strong relation with the United States . In

14279-500: The party regarding cooperation with the AfD and The Left , which party statute holds to be equally unacceptable. While the Thuringia crisis was the immediate trigger for Kramp-Karrenbauer's resignation, she stated the decision had "matured some time ago", and media attributed it to the troubled development of her brief leadership. Kramp-Karrenbauer remained in office as Minister of Defence and interim party leader from February until

14410-468: The party was split over issues of rearmament within the Western alliance and German unification as a neutral state. Adenauer staunchly defended his pro-Western position and outmaneuvered some of his opponents. He also refused to consider the SPD as a party of the coalition until he felt sure that they shared his anti-communist position. The principled rejection of a reunification that would alienate Germany from

14541-427: The party's electoral defeat in 1998, when he was succeeded by Wolfgang Schäuble . In the 1998 federal election , the CDU polled 28.4% and the CSU 6.7% of the national vote, the lowest result for those parties since 1949; a red–green coalition under the leadership of Gerhard Schröder took power until 2005. Schäuble resigned in early 2000 as a result of a party financing scandal and was replaced by Angela Merkel ,

14672-505: The personal popularity of Chancellor Merkel. After talks with the Greens had failed, the CDU/CSU formed a new grand coalition with the SPD. Despite their long-cherished slogan of "There must be no democratically legitimised party to the right of CDU/CSU", the Union has had a serious competitor to its right since 2013. The right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) was founded with the involvement of disgruntled CDU members. It drew on

14803-571: The promises in the CDU's 2013 election platform were seen as "overtaking the SPD on the left". While this strategy proved to be quite successful in elections, it also raised warnings that the CDU's profile would become "random", the party would lose its "essence" and it might even be dangerous for democracy in general if parties became indistinguishable and voters demotivated. President Wulff resigned in February 2012 due to allegations of corruption, triggering an early presidential election . This time

14934-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation

15065-483: The self-government of universities and for that supports the idea of a private as well as governmental financing of universities. In addition to the party platform which was enacted in 2013, the RCDS adopted their European policy program one year later in 2014. The program strictly claims the sustainable promotion of European education areas as well as the enhancement of the ERASMUS program becoming ERASMUS+. Furthermore,

15196-582: The so-called "Hochschulallianz" in conjunction with other university organizations. The main purpose of that alliance is to construct a collective representation of interests between lecturers and learners compared with politics and to plead for the interests of sciences. Christian Democratic Union (Germany) Defunct Defunct The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( German : Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands [ˈkʁɪstlɪç demoˈkʁaːtɪʃə ʔuˈni̯oːn ˈdɔʏtʃlants] , CDU German pronunciation: [ˌtseːdeːˈʔuː] )

15327-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,

15458-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in

15589-504: The two parties reached a deal whereby CDU received the chancellorship while the SPD retained 8 of the 16 seats in the cabinet and a majority of the most prestigious cabinet posts. The coalition deal was approved by both parties at party conferences on 14 November. Merkel was confirmed as the first female Chancellor of Germany by the majority of delegates (397 to 217) in the newly assembled Bundestag on 22 November. Since her first term in office, from 2005 to 2009, there have been discussions if

15720-576: The university. Through education every person is able to recognize their personal skills and liberties and with that be encouraged in taking personal and social responsibility within society. For that the RCDS places itself particularly against any interventions into sciences, research and teaching. Furthermore, the association strictly refuses the Civil Clause and ever again points out the major importance of liberty of sciences, research and teachings at German universities. The opportunity of studying at

15851-555: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during

15982-600: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching

16113-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of

16244-547: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially

16375-476: Was dispraised. Furthermore, their main electorate was primarily represented by conservative and mostly catholic members of German fraternity associations, religious student communities such as the KDSE (German: Katholische Deutsche Studenteneinigung) or independent student council representatives. With the beginning of the 1960s the RCDS was able to encourage their posture within the student parliament. However, due to

16506-492: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which

16637-522: Was founded in the course of the first Federal Delegate Conference 1951 in Bonn. However, the first Christian democratic university groups (German: christlich demokratische Hochschulgruppen, CDH) already emerged shortly after the Second World War. At first they were mostly focussed on the Sowjet Occupation Zone (German: Sowjetische Besatzungszone), where they became a major force of resistance against

16768-472: Was reiterated in the 1990 federal election in which the CDU–FDP governing coalition experienced a clear victory. Although Kohl was re-elected, the party began losing much of its popularity because of an economic recession in the former GDR and increased taxes in the west. The CDU was nonetheless able to win the 1994 federal election by a narrow margin thanks to an economic recovery. Kohl served as chairman until

16899-570: Was seen as an affirmation of Merkel's leadership and the CDU's centrist orientation. On 7 October 2021, Armin Laschet, signaled that he would step down after a disastrous general election result, with the CDU suffering its worst ever general election result. A new leadership election was called in December and Friedrich Merz , of the right-wing faction of the CDU, was elected by a large majority of 62,1% of voters, defeating pro-Merkel candidates Norbert Röttgen and Helge Braun . The Congress of

17030-514: Was the Spitzenkandidat for the European People's Party in the 2019 European Parliament election. However, the EPP group ultimately nominated the CDU's Ursula von der Leyen as their candidate for President of the European Commission ; she was elected in July 2019, becoming the first woman to hold the office. Kramp-Karrenbauer resigned as party chair on 10 February 2020, in the midst of

17161-455: Was the establishment of an inter-confessional ( Catholic and Protestant alike) party influenced heavily by the political tradition of liberal conservatism . The CDU experienced considerable success gaining widespread support from the time of its creation in Berlin on 26 June 1945 until its first convention on 21 October 1950, at which future West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was named

#458541