The CDU donations scandal was a

political scandal In politics, a political scandal is an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage. Politicians, government officials, Political party, party officials and Lobbying, lobbyists can be accused of various ...

resulting from the illegal forms of party financing used by the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) during the 1990s. These included accepting hidden donations, the non-disclosure of cash donations, the maintenance of secret bank accounts, and illegal

wire transfer Wire transfer, bank transfer, or credit transfer, is a method of electronic funds transfer from one person or entity to another. A wire transfer can be made from one bank account to another bank account, or through a transfer of cash at a cash ...

s to and from foreign banks. The scandal was uncovered in late 1999 and remained the dominant subject of political discussion and news coverage in Germany for several months. The ''

Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache The ' (, ''Association for the German Language''), or , is Germany's most important government-sponsored language society. Its headquarters are in Wiesbaden. Re-founded shortly after the Second World War in 1947, the is politically independent ...

'' selected the term ''Schwarzgeldaffäre'' ( literally, "black money affair" i.e. "illegal earnings scandal") as German Word of the Year 2000.

Opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of qu ...

s conducted by the

Allensbach Institute The Allensbach Institute, formally the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research or Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Polling (), is a private opinion poll, polling institute based in Allensbach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Histor ...

suggest that in November 1999 (before the scandal became known), the CDU was expected to receive around 45 percent of the popular vote in a hypothetical German federal election. By February 2000, this value had plummeted down to 31 percent.German opinion polls from 1998 to 2002 on the federal level
conducted by the

, collected by wahlrecht.de As a consequence, two of the leading CDU figures of the 1980s and 1990s,

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany and governed the ''Federal Republic'' from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to ...

and

Wolfgang Schäuble Wolfgang Schäuble (; 18 September 1942 – 26 December 2023) was a German politician whose political career spanned more than five decades. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he was the longest-serving member of any democratic G ...

lost their political influence, with

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

and Roland Koch emerging as the most powerful German conservative politicians.

Timeline

1999

2000

Later events

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:CDU donations scandal (1999) 1999 in Germany Political scandals in Germany Helmut Kohl

Timeline

1999

2000

Later events

See also

References