Ge110F12XianzhiY: September 2012

My work on CDU party

The CDU is Christian based, it stands for Christian Democratic Union. Once received this project, our group divided the work into several. After each done, we just emailed our information to a person who took care of the PowerPoint presentation. I was one of three people who did the CDU party platform. Since this party was Christian based, the principles of Christian Democracy were applied. They believed that Christian understanding of humans and their responsibility toward God. But things changed little bit since 1994. New CDU party platform formed that time, focusing on freedom, justice and solidarity resting on Christian foundations. The present party platform was created in 1994 in response to domestic and international changes such as German reunification and the end of the East-West conflict. Similarly, Germany is again facing new circumstances on both the home and global fronts with the lines between the two become ever more blurred.

CDU has a wide range of membership. It consists however of people adhering to a variety of religions as well as non-religious individuals. The CDU's policies derive from Political Catholicism, Catholic social teaching and political Protestantism, as well as fiscal conservatism and national conservatism. The CDU was the first proponent of the social market economy, although the party has adopted more liberal economics policies since Helmut Kohl's term in office as the Chancellor of Germany (1982–1998).

Opponents of the CDU are the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), The Left party and Alliance '90/The Greens. The CDU has however governed in two Grand Coalitions with the SPD as well as in various coalitions with the Alliance '90/The Greens. The CDU rejects coalitions with either The Left or right-wing extremist parties.

The Free Democratic Party (FDP), a classical liberal party, is the preferred partner of any CDU government since the CDU and FDP have similar attitudes towards fiscal policy. As a conservative party, the CDU supports stronger punishments of crimes and supports involvement on the part of the Bundeswehr in cases of domestic anti-terrorism offensives as well as in natural catastrophes. In terms of immigrants, the CDU supports initiatives to integrate immigrants through language courses, and aims to further control immigration. Dual citizenship should only be allowed in exceptional cases.

Basing on my studies and other group work, I thought CDU is a liberal party. For example, they have some support to the immigrant and they are against abortions. Also, there are not only male chancellors but also females. From these facts we can also see the liberty.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Democratic_Union_(Germany) ,18/09/2012

http://www.kas.de/db_files/dokumente/7_dokument_dok_pdf_8075_1.pdf ,18/09/2012

History

Brandenburg is relatively new in its current form. It was one of the federal states that emerged after the reunification in 1990. In medieval times (and into early modern times) the area now known as Brandenburg was considered to be the area known as Prussia. Prussia was the first unified state of the German empire. From 1772 to 1918, the area was known as the Kingdom of Prussia, but the area still referred to as Brandenburg was the most important part of the kingdom, becoming a province of Prussia in 1815. There was a sharp increase in population during this time due to a booming industrial economy. Prussia became a free state in 1918 and in 1920 the greater Berlin area marked itself as its own province. Potsdam became the capital city of the Brandenburg province.

After World War II Prussia was dissolved and Brandenburg was split into separate districts. Brandenburg was a part of East Germany, where there was a socialist government. Brandenburg remained a big player in the agricultural economy of East Germany. On October 15, 1990 the present form of Brandenburg was founded. The reunification of Germany brought much unemployment to the state, as its economy could not compete with the western half of Germany. Recently, the unemployment rate has declined and the economy has picked up significantly.

The Landscape

Brandenburg is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 when West and East Germany were unified. The state of Brandenburg is densely forested and contains Europe’s most extensive landscape of rivers and lakes. There are more than 3000 lakes with the Havel, Spree, and Oder rivers. It contains Lower Oder Valley National Park, three Biosphere Reserves and eleven Nature Parks. Brandenburg surrounds Berlin but does not include the national capital and city-state. The capital city of Brandenburg is Potsdam. Other cities include Cottbus, Brandenburg an der Havel, and Frankfurt (Oder).

Potsdam is situated on the River Havel and is the capital of Brandenburg. It is the largest city in Brandenburg with twelve palaces, including Sanssouci Palace – the summer residence of King Frederick II. Before 1918, Potsdam was the residence of the Prussian kings and German Kaisers. Potsdam has many architecturally significant buildings associated with Prussian royalty. The Babelsberg Film Studio is located in Potsdam and is the oldest, large-scale, film studio in the world. There are three public colleges and more than 30 research institutes in the city.

Cottbus is the cultural centre of the Lower Sorbian minority. It is also home of Brandenburg University of Technology and the maths/science-oriented Max-Steenback-Gymnasium, which is named after the physicist Max Steenbeck.

Brandenburg an der Havel, also known as Brandenburg City, is located on the banks of the River Havel and is the oldest town in the state. During the Nazi era it had a concentration camp, one of the first in Germany. After closing the camp, the Nazis used a prison in Gorden, a suburb of Brandenburg an der Havel, that later became the Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre. Brandenburg an der Havel was one of the first locations where Nazis experimented with killing their victims by gas.

Frankfurt (Oder) is a smaller city in Brandenburg located on the Oder River, which separates Germany and Poland. Frankfurt (Oder) is not to be confused with the larger city Frankfurt am Main located in the state of Hesse. Here, in Frankfurt (Oder) you can walk across the city bridge and be in the Polish town Slubice. Frankfurt an der Oder has one the largest Gothic churches and one of the oldest medieval town halls. The 18^th century German novelist and playwright, Heinrich von Kleist, is the town’s most famous resident.

Demographics

This is a state in northeastern Germany that surrounds, but is independent of the city of Berlin. Poland is to the east of this state and also bordered by other states of Germany such as, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the north, Freistaat Sachsen in the south, Saxony-Anhalt in the west and Lower Saxony in the northwest. The capital of this state is Potsdam. The population was recorded as 2,495,635 in 2011. The state area is 29,478.63 km²(11,381.76 sq mi).

Economy

The main economic industries include agriculture, automotive industry, energy industry, electrical industry and optical industry. 7 universities and 21 other higher-education institutions with more than 182,000 students, as well as over 100 private and public institutes and development facilities make Berlin-Brandenburg one of the densest research networks in Europe.

Brandenburg is a vital place for logistics. Nine out of ten of the biggest German logistic companies are located here, German Railways, German Post, Kühne+Nagel, Dachser, DPD, UPS, Rhenus, Panalpina and Fiege. There are also hundreds of bringing companies located here. The GDP of this state ranked 11^th in 2011 which was 55,090 Euro€ (76,680 US$).