Konrad Adenauer

Konrad Hermann Josef Adenauer (1876–1967) was a German statesman. Prior to World War II, he was an elected official from the Catholic Center Party and a vocal opponent of the Nazis. As a result, he was persecuted by that group following their ascendance under Adolf Hitler. Following the end of World War II, Adenauer's anti-Nazi credentials won him the respect and admiration of the Allies, who supported his establishment of the Christian Democratic Union. Upon the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) as an independent state in 1949, Adenauer became that country's first democratically elected chancellor, serving from 1949 to 1963.

Konrad Adenauer in The Man With the Iron Heart
As the mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer (1876-1946) had made a name for himself as an opponent of the Nazis before World War II, and so became a logical choice after the war and a favorite of the Western Allies to lead Germany. Adenauer established a new political party, the Christian Democratic Union from Cologne, with the help of the British.

The German Freedom Front targeted Adenauer for assassination in 1946. One attempt by a suicide bomber failed. The second, a mortar attack at a rally in American-occupied Erlangen, succeeded, when Adenauer was blown off the platform he was speaking on, and his body from the neck down was shredded.