One of Adenauer's most important and most lasting innovations in the history of the Federal Republic is that of bringing together party splinters in the right center of the Weimar Republic in a large People's Party, thus bridging the secular opposition of Catholics and Protestants.
He united in the Christian Democratic Union, the entrepreneur camp, the commercial middle class, peasants and parts of the industrial workers in a political phalanx, the class antagonisms were considered incompatible before the two world wars. This was a historically unique event in the history of German society. Under Adenauer's leadership, the Union of CDU and CSU became a major party political camp, joined by smaller competing parties.