The CSU has always been a bit different from other parties. Provincial yet cosmopolitan, narrow-minded yet boastful, full of strength yet vulnerable - this is how it has established itself as the perceived Bavarian state party. However, the glory of the CSU is wavering, and it is uncertain whether it can maintain its positions of power in the Free State and in Berlin. Roman Deininger has been scrutinizing the CSU for many years for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. His nuanced portrait of this "special" party is well-informed, critical, fair, and not least - like the CSU itself - highly entertaining.

What other parties can only dream of has been a veritable downfall for the CSU: it achieved a mere 37.2 percent in the 2018 state election in Bavaria, after having governed almost uninterruptedly with an absolute majority for decades. How can its enormous success be explained, and why this crisis now? How does this party actually "tick"? From "Ochsensepp" to Franz-Josef Strauss to Markus Söder, Roman Deininger traces the path of the CSU, but his book is much more than a history lesson - it is a political report that takes the reader into the beer haze of Political Ash Wednesday and behind the scenes of power.