CDU North Rhine-Westphalia

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CDU North Rhine-Westphalia
Armin Laschet
Armin Laschet
CDU LV NRW.svg
Chairman Armin Laschet
Deputy Ralph Brinkhaus
Ina Scharrenbach
Karl-Josef Laumann
Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker
Jan Heinisch
Secretary General Josef Hovenjürgen
Treasurer Steffen Kanitz
Establishment date November 8, 1986
Place of foundation Dusseldorf
Headquarters Wasserstraße 6
40213 Düsseldorf
Landtag mandates
72/199
Number of members 130,538 (as of end of 2016)
Website www.cdu-nrw.de

The CDU North Rhine-Westphalia is the largest state association of a party in North Rhine-Westphalia . At the end of 2016, it was the largest regional association of the CDU with a good 130,500 members . Since the state elections in 2017 , the NRW CDU has made up the largest parliamentary group in the Düsseldorf state parliament with 72 members .

organization

Regional office in Düsseldorf

The CDU North Rhine-Westphalia is divided into 8 district associations, which in turn are organized in 54 district associations. The district associations are Aachen, Mittelrhein, Südwestfalen, Bergisches Land, Niederrhein, Ruhr, Ostwestfalen-Lippe and Münsterland.

history

founding

After the Second World War , the CDU was formed in what is now North Rhine-Westphalia as a non-denominational re-establishment. In 1945 three regional associations were created: the CDU Rhineland, the Christian Democratic Party of Westphalia and the Christian Democratic Party of Lippe. The founding party congresses took place simultaneously in the Rhineland and Westphalia on September 2, 1945. After a short time, the names were unified in the CDU. After the merger of the state of Lippe with North Rhine-Westphalia , the state association CDU Westphalia-Lippe was formed.

The party found different bases in the country. Before the Nazi dictatorship, the Catholic areas of the Rhineland and Westphalia were politically represented by the German Center Party (DZP). Here the idea of ​​a non-denominational party met with resistance. In the early years of North Rhine-Westphalia, the DZP and CDU were therefore represented in parliaments, but in the course of the 1950s the CDU was able to oust the center. In the predominantly Protestant areas of North Rhine-Westphalia, the CDU was generally not as strong as in the Catholic areas.

The composition of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia appointed by the British occupying power resulted in a majority of the SPD and KPD. With a third of the seats, the CDU was the second strongest force after the SPD. However, as early as the local elections on September 15, 1946 (details here ) it was clear that the British had misjudged the majority situation. The CDU was clearly the strongest force with 46% of the vote (SPD 33.4; KPD 9.4; DZP 6.1; FDP 4.3%). As a result, the British changed the distribution of mandates in the state parliament: the CDU also received 92 of 200 mandates there and was able to appoint Robert Lehr as President of Parliament.

On March 1, 1946, the Zone Committee of the CDU of the British Zone approved the Neheim-Hüstener program . The Ahlen program discussed in 1947 , which propagated a “Christian Socialism”, was not implemented in the CDU's policy. With the Düsseldorf guiding principles , the CDU committed itself in July 1949 to a liberal economic policy.

Karl Arnold era

Karl Arnold on a postage stamp

In the first state election ( April 20, 1947 ), the CDU was clearly the strongest parliamentary group with 37.6%. As such, she provided the first Prime Minister in the following all-party coalition with Karl Arnold . In the second state election ( June 18, 1950 ), the CDU was confirmed as the strongest party. Arnold formed a coalition of CDU and DZP . After the election of June 27, 1954 , in which the Union received 41.3% of the vote (plus 4.4 percentage points) and the DZP lost 3.5 percentage points, the CDU and DZP lacked two seats in the majority. The FDP was accepted into the coalition; Arnold formed the Arnold III cabinet and remained Prime Minister. When Konrad Adenauer tried at the beginning of 1956 to weaken the FDP by changing the electoral law (→ Adenauer era # break in the coalition ), the FDP NRW decided to withdraw from the state government of NRW. On February 20, 1956, Arnold was voted out of office by a constructive vote of no confidence by the SPD, FDP and the center, and the CDU NRW became an opposition party for the first time. Fritz Steinhoff became Prime Minister and formed the Steinhoff Cabinet .

interregnum

The organizational separation of the two regional associations CDU Rhineland and CDU Westphalia-Lippe was not very problematic during the reign. The party was represented at the level of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia by the Prime Minister. With the loss of the government majority, however, the lack of a NRW-wide party organization was perceived as a deficiency. In 1956, a joint regional council was therefore formed. The boards of both regional associations were represented there on an equal footing. The function of a state party congress was taken over by a state assembly, for which each state association elected 60 delegates. The independence of the regional associations continued to exist; the newly created bodies only had coordination functions.

Franz Meyer's era

The state election of July 6, 1958 brought a landslide victory for the CDU. It achieved an absolute majority with 50.5% of the votes. The center was no longer represented in the state parliament and was never to play a political role in the country again. The question of a denominational or non-denominational bourgeois party had finally been answered in favor of the Union by the electorate.

With Franz Meyers , the Union again provided the Prime Minister. Meyers, Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1952 to 1956, was nominated as the top candidate at short notice after Karl Arnold died unexpectedly on June 29th. Even when the CDU lost its absolute majority in the July 8, 1962 election and gained 46.4% of the vote, Franz Meyers succeeded in forming a CDU / FDP coalition and remaining head of government until 1966.

opposition

Kurt Biedenkopf

The state election of July 10, 1966 was won by the SPD (SPD 49.5%; CDU 42.8%; FDP 7.4%). The FDP preferred a social-liberal coalition to a continuation of the previous government; there was a change of government (→ Kühn I cabinet ). This decision was a harbinger of the SPD / FDP coalition at the federal level in 1969 ( Brandt I cabinet ). A period of opposition began for the CDU that would last for almost 40 years.

In the 1970 and 1975 elections , the CDU received the most votes, but not an absolute majority. The FDP was not interested in changing coalition partners; the SPD-FDP coalition remained in government. In 1980, 1985 and 1990 the SPD achieved absolute majorities (→ Cabinet Rau II , III and IV ). In 1995 and 2000 she formed a coalition with the Greens.

Organizationally, a drastic change took place in 1986: The current state association was founded at the party congress on March 8, 1986 through the merger of the state associations CDU Rhineland and CDU Westphalia-Lippe. The previous state associations were replaced by 8 district associations, whereby the party organization joined that of the other CDU state associations.

elections

Local elections

Vorlage:Zeitleiste Wähleranteil Kommunalwahlen in Nordrhein-Westfalen seit 1946 Räte der kreisfreien Städte und Kreistage


State elections

From 2005, the party together with the FDP provided the state government ( Rüttgers cabinet ). In the state elections in 2005 on May 22, 2005, the CDU gained over 7 percentage points , became the strongest party with 44.8% of the votes and Jürgen Rüttgers was elected as Prime Minister together with the FDP.

In the state elections in 2010 on May 9, 2010, the CDU lost 10.2% and ended up just ahead of the SPD (34.5%) with 34.6%. This meant the CDU's worst performance in a state election in North Rhine-Westphalia (2012: 26.3%). The CDU, together with the FDP, no longer had a majority of mandates; the SPD top candidate Hannelore Kraft was elected the new Prime Minister and formed a minority government together with the Greens ( Kraft I cabinet ).

In October 2010, the members of the CDU NRW were able to vote by member survey who they would prefer as the new state chairman. The options were Armin Laschet and Norbert Röttgen . With a turnout of 52.8%, Röttgen prevailed with 54.8% versus 45.2%. Before the member survey, there was general agreement that the winner of the survey will be elected as the new state chairman by the state party conference on November 6th. Norbert Röttgen was elected by the delegates on November 6th with 92.5% as the new state chairman. Oliver Wittke replaced Andreas Krautscheid as General Secretary. Armin Laschet, Karl-Josef Laumann, Ursula Heinen , Michaela Noll and Sven Volmering became the new deputy chairmen.

After losing the state elections in May 2012 with historically poor results for the CDU and a red-green majority , Norbert Röttgen resigned as CDU state chairman. The new CDU leader was Armin Laschet , who at the end of 2013, succeeding Karl-Josef Laumann, also became parliamentary group chairman in the state parliament and thus opposition leader. As such, Laschet led the NRW CDU in the state elections in 2017 , from which the party emerged as the strongest political force with 33.0% (72 seats) despite its second-worst result in the party's history.


State election results
year be right Seats Top candidate
1947 37.6% 92 Karl Arnold
1950 36.9% 93 Karl Arnold
1954 41.3% 90 Karl Arnold
1958 50.5% 104 Karl Arnold †; without
1962 46.4% 96 Franz Meyers
1966 42.8% 86 Franz Meyers
1970 46.3% 95 Heinrich Koeppler
1975 47.1% 95 Heinrich Koeppler
1980 43.2% 95 Kurt Biedenkopf
1985 36.5% 88 Bernhard Worms
1990 36.7% 90 Norbert Blüm
1995 37.7% 89 Helmut Linssen
2000 37.0% 88 Jürgen Rüttgers
2005 44.8% 89 Jürgen Rüttgers
2010 34.6% 67 Jürgen Rüttgers
2012 26.3% 67 Norbert Röttgen
2017 33.0% 72 Armin Laschet

Chairperson

CDU Rhineland

Years Chairman
1946-1951 Konrad Adenauer
1951-1963 Wilhelm Johnen
1963-1969 Konrad Grundmann
1969-1980 Heinrich Koeppler
1980-1985 Bernhard Worms
1985-1986 Dieter Pützhofen

CDU Westphalia-Lippe

Years Chairman
1946-1947 Lambert Lensing
1947-1951 Johannes Gronowski
1951-1959 Lambert Lensing
1959-1970 Josef Hermann Dufhues
1970-1977 Heinrich Windelen
1977-1986 Kurt Biedenkopf

CDU North Rhine-Westphalia

Years Chairman
1986-1987 Kurt Biedenkopf
1987-1999 Norbert Blüm
1999-2010 Jürgen Rüttgers
2010–2012 Norbert Röttgen
since 2012 Armin Laschet

literature

  • Ludger Gruber: The CDU parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia 1946-1980. A parliamentary historical investigation (= research and sources on contemporary history. Vol. 31). Droste, Düsseldorf 1998, ISBN 3-7700-1879-6 .
  • Power of an idea. 20 years CDU Rhineland. Recklinghausen, Kommunalverlag 1965.
  • Hans-Otto Kleinmann : History of the CDU. 1945–1982. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-421-06541-1 ; The history of the CDU NRW is dealt with on pp. 27–34 (foundation), 219–222 (Arnold era), 390–382 beginning of the opposition.
  • Guido Wärme : Lost Years? The North Rhine-Westphalian CDU in opposition 1975–1995 (= research and sources on contemporary history. Vol. 45). 3 volumes. Droste, Düsseldorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-7700-1893-2 .

Web links

Commons : CDU NRW  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Oskar Niedermayer : Party members according to federal states. Federal Agency for Civic Education , July 8, 2017, accessed on August 25, 2017 .
  2. Results of the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia 2017 , accessed on May 16, 2017 at wdr.de
  3. Results of the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia 2017 , accessed on May 16, 2017 at wdr.de
  4. Results of the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia 2017 , accessed on May 16, 2017 at wdr.de
  5. ^ Results of the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia
  6. Results of the state elections 1950 to 2005 with the regional returning officer of North Rhine-Westphalia
  7. Detailed results of the state elections in 2010 from the regional returning officer of North Rhine-Westphalia
  8. Results of the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia 2017 , accessed on May 16, 2017 at wdr.de
  9. ^ Review (FAZ) by Rainer Blasius