AH Challenge: CSU joins the CDU

The split of the conservative so-called "union parties" in Germany effectively dates back to the Weimar National Assembly when Bavarian Center Party deputies broke off from the Center Party and founded the Bavarian People's Party as a countermove to Matthias Erzberger's idea of unitarism for Germany.

After World War II, center-right parties changed a lot. But the old divide between Center and BVP continued with the divide of CDU and CSU, their super-confessional daughter parties who managed to slick most former voter bases of e.g. DVP and DNVP, being major consolidators of post-war democracy. And as anybody in Germany know, CSU fiercely demands to have her autonomy continuously respected. CSU joining the CDU would by many considered as an act near heresy.

So what would it take, preferably with a POD after World War II, to make the CSU join the CDU just as an ordinary state division?
 
The CSU has always gained a lot of momentum from charismatic leader figures such as Franz-Josef Strauss or Edmund Stoiber.

With these executives, the party was not only able to contantly win the bavarian elections easily, with results up to a two-third majority, but also to put across its demands for national influence.

And this is the critical point: In a federal state like the FRG, no party can be succesful without a certain amount of nation-wide importance, even if its impetus inherits the idea of a mere regional party.

If you cut these individuals, CSU might not only loose votes, but also the moral legitimation to exist as a conservative party as a whole, regarding the fact that a bigger, more important and by far more powerful conservative party exist right in front of bavarias doorstep.

Actually, if you look at the top-level of CSU-politicians nowadays, I am not very optimistic when it comes to the party's future. With rather boring, drab old guys with seemingly few political endowments, CSU might as well join CDU, when election results turn out more and more disastrous.

If Bavaria would vote today, CSU would have to form a coalition for the first time in....a very long time:p
 
this challenge is littel bit odd because

OTL On the federal level, CSU forms a common fraction with the CDU. in the Bundestag (National Federal Parliament)
Polical has fusion of CSU and CDU no effect, they still need a coalition partner like FDP
FDP The Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei)

A the major problem of 1970s "CSU joins CDU" is
CSU Chairmen Franz Josef Strauß vrs CDU Chairmen Helmut Kohl

FJS din't like Kohl and vice versa
OTL Kohl lost The 1976 Bundestag election and wanded again candidate for 1980 Bundestag election
but FJS became candidate or 1980 Bundestag election and lost also

in the end on October 1, 1982, the CDU proposed a constructive vote of no confidence which was supported by the FDP
(coalition partner of ruling SPD )
the Bundestag voted in a new CDU/CSU-FDP coalition cabinet, with Kohl as the chancellor.
 
They have to lose a row of elections in an earth-shattering way.

Or an earlier reunification, making Bavaria not the success model it is today, but the rural state it was.
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
Franconia (OTL northern part of Bavaria) becomes a state of it's own, as Canadian Occupation Zone or something like that.
CSU only forms in Bavaria, it manages to get rid of the bavarian party like in OTL, but when the nationwide 5% hump is introduced in '53, the going gets tougher. They easily manage, to get 3 direct seat, but in 1957, Adenauer gets so annoyed of Hanns Seidel, Strauss and some other CSU-leaders, that he formes a CDU/DP coalition.
About half of the CSU mebers in the Bundestag become CDU members right away, the rest stays in an independent CSU.
In 1961 CSU and CDU are opponents in Bavaria, the CSU still enters the Bundestag, but not strong enough for Fraktionsstatus (is it even possible to translate that?).
Adenauers new CDU/FDP coalition breaks appart during an economical crisis in august 1963. FDP SPD and CSU join forces and replace him with Erich Ollenhauer, who dies in December 1963.
Since the Bundestag isn't able to elect a new Chancelor, President Lummer disolves the Bundestag.
Ludwig Erhard, CDU candidate for Chancellor, running on the top spot in Bavaria wins in a landslide.
The CSU wins only 2 direct seats.
Most members go over to the CDU.
The CSU stays an independent party, just like the Center Party in OTL today, but likely a little bit stronger. In 1982, the even smaller Bavarian Party joins the CSU.

p.S. Does this already qualify as a timeline?
 
Some more details would be nice. At least invent chancellors until 1982, and whether there are any international ramifications (earlier Ostverträge, with an SPD chancellor?).
 
I thought of a rather "easy" POD:

Strauß planned to expand his CSU to all of Germany to attract die-hard conservatives everywhere while the more moderate CDU should attract more liberal voters in the center, everything in order to achieve a majority in the upcoming federal elections (1976, 1980). Therefore Kreuther Trennungsbeschluss of 1976 to become an own club in Bundestag. After that, Strauß announced to expand the CSU to all of Germany (as a "fourth party"), but Kohl menaced Strauß to make the CDU stand up in Bavaria. Then Strauß quitted his plans, IOTL.

What if Strauß didn't quit his "fourth party" plans and the CDU stood for election in Bavaria?
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
Some more details would be nice. At least invent chancellors until 1982, and whether there are any international ramifications (earlier Ostverträge, with an SPD chancellor?).

I'll think about it, but here Ollenhauer is only chancellor for a couple of month, not enough time for treaties with the East.
 
Top