Konrad Adenauer

A three-quarter portrait of Adenauer, whose 150th birthday falls in 2026. Along the image edge: the occasion 'KONRAD ADENAUER' and the mint mark ('A', 'D', 'F', 'G' or 'J') to the left; the dates '1876 – 1967', the country code 'D' and the year '2026' to the right. The designer's initials 'MD' complete the design.

Konrad Adenauer is regarded as one of the most defining politicians in German post-war history. As the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, an office he held from 1949 to 1963, he shaped the West German state during its most decisive phase: out of the ruins of the Second World War and the National Socialist dictatorship, he built a parliamentary democracy stable enough to endure for decades. Adenauer, born on 5 January 1876 in Cologne, came from the Rhenish Catholic milieu and had already proven his political stature as Lord Mayor of Cologne during the Weimar Republic. After the National Socialists seized power he was removed from office and lived in seclusion; the fact that he nonetheless returned to politics makes his life story a symbol of Germany's democratic new beginning.

His foreign-policy legacy was as foundational as his domestic one: Adenauer drove the Federal Republic's integration with the West, pursued reconciliation with France — which found formal expression in the Élysée Treaty of 1963 — and firmly anchored Germany within the Western alliance. At the same time, he negotiated the Luxembourg Agreement with Israel, placing reparations for Nazi crimes on a formal state footing. In 2026, Adenauer's birth will be commemorated for the 150th time — an occasion Germany is using to launch its new coin series "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" (Unity and Justice and Freedom), dedicated to significant figures in German history. Adenauer's place at the start of the series is no coincidence: few people embody the building of the democratic Federal Republic as directly as he does.