Adenauer the greatest

The week's news at a glance.

Berlin

Germans have picked Konrad Adenauer, the chancellor who led West Germany out of the post-Nazi gloom, as the “best German” of all time. More than 3 million people voted in the survey, which was conducted by a TV station. Martin Luther, the Renaissance theologian who started the Protestant Reformation, came in second, and Karl Marx, founder of communism, placed third. Also finishing in the top 10 were composer Johann Sebastian Bach, movable-type inventor Johannes Gutenberg, and physicist Albert Einstein. Adenauer is revered for turning Germany from a war-devastated wreck into an economic powerhouse within a generation.

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