Given the history of its electoral defeat, the CDU cannot help but involve the grassroots in the election of the new party chairman.
The clear vote of the district chairperson for a member survey was therefore as expected as November rain.
But the party's real problem is not that its leadership decided against the will of its members.
Even at the grassroots level, there are those opposing currents that have made decisions about party chairmanship and candidacy for chancellor such tight affairs.
There are rather conservative forces who - in this respect similar to social democratic nostalgics - want to use old recipes to achieve greatness by the past, and modernizers who have their sights set on changes in the middle of society.
In the cities, the Union is struggling to join milieus whose views often arouse alienation in the countryside.
There are different mentalities in East and West German regional associations.
If the CDU wants to regain strength, it has to find a formula that integrates all of these forces.
But it is likely that a member survey will initially open up the differences even more openly.
The “new chapter” that Secretary General Ziemiak wants to open could have dramatic climaxes.