GERMAN CHANCELLORS SURVIVOR- winner: Willy BRANDT, over Adenauer !

[minionofmidas]

Bismarck. Same reasoning as before.

[minionofmidas]

Bismarck.

[minionofmidas]

Bismarck

[minionofmidas]

Bismarck ended my country's independence. What do you expect? (Yeah, I know. My ancestors only started moving here twenty years after that. )
Frankfurt remained a city under very real military occupation for half the "German Empire" period of Prussia's history.

[minionofmidas]

Bismarck

[minionofmidas]

Bismarck

[minionofmidas]

Ludwig Erhard

Reason: Mediocre Chancellor. His whole reputation stems from his time as Minister of Economics.

Actually, his reputation mostly stems from his time as Director of Economics of the Bizonal Economic Council... the most powerful German-held position in Germany at the time.

[minionofmidas]

Hessen and Frankfurt was in the time before Bismark official independent, but in reality nothing. The big countries like Prussia,  Austria and France make with them what they want. This isn't independent.

That's just as independent as most of the world's countries today.

Frankfurt's last head of state hanged himself after annexation, btw. He has a short residential street named after him.

[minionofmidas]

Didn't the unification of Germany enjoy popular suppport? At least in the central parts of the country?

There was no opinion polling at the time. There was very little tradition of mass popular turnout in elections, too - that only began soon after.
Broadly speaking, and in as far as these things can be determined, there was popular support for  unification of Germany under Prussian leadership, but not for the annexations that went at the same time (Hesse Kassel partially excepted due to the immense unpopularity of its own inbred and incompetent ruling family) - A Hanoverian regionalist party protesting annexation by Prussia would continue into the 20th century. And there were misgivings about just how much power Prussia wielded within the new state, especially about Bismarck leading both governments at once.
Feelings on leaving Austria out entirely were probably much more mixed - the idea was certainly not what you'd call "popular", but the issue had festered for 20-odd years and there was no easy alternative solution. More of a case of people accepting the seemingly inevitable.
Of course, in 1866 it was the "North German Federation" as yet, not the "German Empire". Prussian dominance would be checked to a degree by the inclusion of Bavaria etc, but in 1866 just *how* short an episode the North German Federation would prove could not be foreseen.

[minionofmidas]

Bismarck

[minionofmidas]

VICTORY!

Leo von Caprivi

[minionofmidas]

Caprivi

[minionofmidas]

Caprivi

[minionofmidas]

Oh, whatever. Hans Luther.

[minionofmidas]

Hertling

[minionofmidas]

Hertling

[minionofmidas]

Max von Baden

[minionofmidas]

Brüning

[minionofmidas]

Helmut Kohl, not a great leader and a corrupt one.

[minionofmidas]

Kohl. Not that I mind if Kiesinger is ousted. Not that I minded that Bauer was ousted. But gotta get the ball rolling...

[minionofmidas]

Tactics, always tactics... but no principles.

That'd be Ebert in a nutshell. But not Müller.

Oh whatever. Erhard.

[minionofmidas]

Kohl

[minionofmidas]

Oh yes. We ought to have taken care of that long ago.

Scheel.

[minionofmidas]

Erhard

[minionofmidas]

Erhard

Thanks for keeping voting in this, despite the World Leaders Survivor events

Of course.

You're a dirty conservative hack, but it's nothing personal as far as I'm concerned.

Besides, gotta save Schröder's ass for at least two or three more rounds yet. His economic policies sucked, by and large and with exceptions, but he dragged the federal government out of 16 years of effective nonexistence as far as any kind of answers to or even awareness of societal changes are concerned (including what the US calls social issues, but not limited to that). Heck, he even dragged the CDU ('s leading personnel) out of that - not that all of the answers they're giving now are better than no answer at all.

But deep down, the reason I still have a soft spot for the Patrons' Comrade is that he was, undeniably, of the Common People. And couldn't have denied it if he tried (so he made an act of it instead - part of it was an act, of course.)