Englisch (English)

The CSU (Christian Social Union of Bavaria) was founded in 1945 in response to the spiritual and tangible misery that followed in the wake of the Nazi dictatorship. Our understanding of politics is based on the Christian concept of mankind and the Christian value system.

The CSU has always seen itself as a Bavarian party with national political pretensions and European accountability, a people's party that offers a political home to men and women from across the social spectrum, be they young, old, employed, trades people, business people, farmers or displaced. Indeed CSU membership does not require German citizenship as long as the person is either a citizen of another member state of the European Union or can prove legitimate residency in Germany for three years.

The CSU is conservative, staying true to both tried and tested values as well as those worthy of preservation; it is liberal, advocating freedom; it has a social conscience, looking to the needy and disadvantaged; and it is progressive, open to new ideas.

Politics from a Christian perspective is based on people and their real concerns and worries and thus rejects utopian visions of the future and political doctrines of salvation.

The CSU supports a liberal constitutional state (the rule of law), representative democracy, a social market economy and a federal state structure as the basic pillars of today's Germany. After overcoming the division of both Germany and Europe, the unified and sovereign Germany upholds the principles that bind the free nations of the West within the framework of the European Community and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

The CSU has played a defining role in German post-war history, from the introduction of a social market economy, integration with the West and setting up the German armed forces right through to rebuilding the economy and establishing comprehensive social protection as well as German reunification and European integration. With its basic principles, modern political objectives and convincing personalities at municipal, regional, national and European level, the CSU offers a guaranteed successful and sound approach towards tackling the major challenges of the future.

The CSU, limited operationally to the German state of Bavaria, together with its sister party the CDU (Christian Democratic Union of Germany), operational throughout the rest of the country, has formed a joint political party in the German Bundestag since 1949.

The list of CSU chairmen reads as follows: Josef Müller (1946-1949), Hans Ehard (1949-1955), Hanns Seidel (1955 - 1961), Franz Josef Strauß (1961 - 1988), Theo Waigel (1988 -1999), Edmund Stoiber (1999 - 2007), Erwin Huber (2007 - 2008). The present incumbent, elected in October 2008, is Horst Seehofer.

The CSU is divided into 10 district cooperative associations, 108 joint district administrative associations and around 2900 local associations. It is found in almost every community in Bavaria, is by far and away the strongest party in the state and is the most powerful force in the municipalities.

From 1946 to 1954 and since 1957, the Bavarian Minister President has been without exception a member of the Christian Social Union. It currently boasts 92 of the 187 state MPs in the Landtag, has 45 MPs in the German Bundestag and 8 MPs in the European Parliament.