Konrad Adenauer to a central position in Europe, presiding over the German Economic Miracle. He was a driving force behind West Germany becoming the first German state to re-establish a national military (the "Bundeswehr") in 1955. He came to terms with France, which made possible the economic unification of Western Europe. Adenauer opposed rival East Germany and made his nation a member of NATO and a firm ally of the United States. Adenauer, who was Chancellor until age 87, was dubbed "Der Alte" ("the elder"). British politician and historian Roy Jenkins says he was "the oldest statesman ever to function in elected
The Man Who Was Thursday in Latin, and a title given to Jesus. (Usually a title given to the Virgin Mary.) "The Man Who Was Thursday" inspired the Irish Republican politician Michael Collins with the idea "if you didn't seem to be hiding nobody hunted you out". Martin Gardner edited "The Annotated Thursday", which provides a great deal of biographical and contextual information in the form of footnotes, along with the text of the book, original reviews from the time of the book's first publication and comments made by Chesterton on the book. A less thorough annotation was done for the edition of the novel