ABSTRACT
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party had emerged from a variety of local and regional groups, bracketed together by a Christian approach to politics by holding the senior position in the West German government. Party congresses provided major occasions for the Chancellor to make policy speeches, to unite the party behind government aims and achievements and project to the outside world an image that CDU and Federal Government were virtually identical. An identification of chancellorship and party organization became even more difficult under the subsequent government, the CDU headed Grand Coalition with the Social Democratic Party. The establishment of post of the General Secretary which also involved the right of the Bonn office to directly work with district organizations, strengthened the central dimension in the CDU and modified the regional traditions a little. The drive towards organizational reform was intensified by the rise of the Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union.
