Through the last century Catholic fraternity alumni have served as German chancellors
presidents federal ministers state executives and leading voices in Germany¿s parliament.
They have played leading roles in the Catholic press in Catholic youth groups in Catholic
civic associations and in the German Catholic hierarchy. After World War II Catholic
fraternity alumni played founding roles in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the
Christian Social Union (CSU) the two parties that led West Germany¿s transition from its
catastrophic defeat («zero hour») to the economic miracle (1949¿1969). This book considers the
ideas that many of these Catholic leaders encountered as college students or as active alumni
in their fraternities in the fifteen years before Adolf Hitler came to power.
