40 years ago today the Federal Republic of Germany’s first chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, died at the age of 91 in the small town of Rhöndorf south of Bonn.

Konrad Adenauer was born in 1867 in Cologne. After studying law in Freiburg and practicing it for a while in Cologne, he was elected mayor of the city in 1917. Adenauer opposed the Nazi Party and was jailed in 1934. He was eventually released but the Gestapo arrested him in September 1944 after being accused of involvement with the July 1944 Staufenberg plot to kill Adolf Hitler. After the war he resumed his position of mayor at the age of 69 but was removed by the British who considered him to be inefficient. In the meantime he helped found the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Four years later he became the first chancellor of the Federal Republic, a position he held for the next 14 years. He led the rebuilding of West Germany and helped turn it into an economic powerhouse, firmly anchored in the Western alliance.

I first came to Germany in 1971 so I never heard Herr Adenauer speak live. However, there are plenty of recordings of his speeches. He was reported to have had a fairly small but effectively vocabulary in his use of the German language. Anecdotes about him abound, like the one when church leaders complained that he could not expect them to say "Yes" and "Amen" to all his proposals. Adenauer is reported to have responded: "Your ‘Yes’ will be enough." When Konrad Adenauer was received by the representatives of the three Western powers in a ceremony to end the post-war occupation status, he was supposed to stand in front of them on the floor while they all stood on a carpet. Adenauer demonstratively took his place on the carpet, reportedly to show that post-war Germany was now on an equal footing with the victorious Western powers. Adenauer is also remembered for having secured the release of Germany’s last World War II prisoners of war, who did not return home from the Soviet Union until after Adenauer visited Moscow in September 1955. A remarkable man at a remarkable time in history.