The Association of Christian Democratic Students (German: Ring Christlich-Demokratischer Studenten, RCDS) is a German student organisation founded in 1951 and based in Berlin. It contains more than 100 groups at universities with 8,000 members in total. The RCDS is the largest and oldest existing political student association in Germany. It sees himself as a liberal and conservative student association. The national chairman of the RCDS is editor of the magazine "Civis mit Sonde".
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The organisation stands politically near the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union, two conservative German political parties. It is one of five founding members of the European Democrat Students, which arose from cooperation between RCDS and Swedish students that started in 1958 at RCDS's annual meeting in West Berlin.
Organizational Structure
The RCDS is institutionally independent CDU / CSU, but has the status of a "friendly organization". Most RCDS chairmen are co-opted members on the boards of the CDU and CSU at each organizational level.
The RCDS contains 14 regional associations (see, e.g., the Association of Christian Democratic Students in Bavaria) and groups at universities. The groups at the universities are organized autonomously.
The alumni of the RCDS are organized in the Association of Christian Democratic Academics (RCDA). The RCDA Federal Association was founded in 1991 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the RCDS.
History
The RCDS was founded on the first assembly on 25 to 27 August 1951 in Bonn; however, some regional groups had been founded before.