 The German Social Union was one of these, then several comprising conservative, Christian-democratic and liberal opposition groups.The party was founded in Leipzig on 20 January 1990 by the St. Thomas Church pastor Hans-Wilhelm Ebeling, modeled loosely on the Christian Social Union of Bavaria ("Christlich-Soziale Union", CSU).Initially, the Bavarian CSU supported the DSU, wishing to make it its East German branch, and thus revisiting Franz Josef Strauß' mid-1970s plan to make the CSU a nationwide "fourth party".