ADENAUER AND THE NEW GERMANY

To be precise- and the book is serious and important enough to warrant precision- this is an overall evaluation and analysis of the role of Adenauer's ethical politics as opposed to the materialistic, power politics which culminated in Nazism. Adenauer as a personality figures primarily as the guiding force and model statesman of his party, the Christian Democratic Union. And the CDU, though its policies and principles are well explored, is cast into the larger philosophic, social, economic crisis of modern Germany. The book is loose in organization, but this looseness is utilized for a free inquiry which is stimulating and salubrious. It is good to know that the problems of politics can still be seen by some interpreters as far vaster than a ballot box and inseparable from ethical realities. Adenauer supplies a pertinent epilogue for a study not to be missed by anyone concerned with contemporary politics. Paul Weymar's Adenauer, which Dutton published earlier this year, provides a more general, more personal portrait.