Helmut Kohl
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Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (German: [ˈhɛlmuːt ˈkoːl]; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German statesman who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 (of West Germany 1982–1990 and of the reunited Germany 1990–1998) and as the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. From 1969 to 1976, Kohl was minister president of the state Rhineland-Palatinate. Kohl chaired the Group of Seven in 1985 and 1992. In 1998 he became honorary chairman of the CDU, resigning from the position in 2000.
Born in 1930 in Ludwigshafen to a Roman Catholic family, Kohl joined the Christian Democratic Union in 1946 at the age of 16. He earned a PhD in history at Heidelberg University in 1958 and worked as a business executive before becoming a full-time politician. He was elected as the youngest member of the Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1959 and became Minister-President of his home state in 1969. Viewed during the 1960s and the early 1970s as a progressive within the CDU, he was elected national chairman of the party in 1973. In the 1976 federal election his party performed well, but the social-liberal government of social democrat Helmut Schmidt was able to remain in power, as well as in 1980, when Kohl's rival from the Bavarian sister party CSU, Franz Josef Strauß, candidated. After Schmidt had lost the support of the liberal FDP in 1982, Kohl was elected Chancellor through a switch of the FDP, forming a Christian-liberal government. After he had become party leader, Kohl was increasingly seen as a more conservative figure.
As Chancellor Kohl was strongly committed to European integration and French–German cooperation in particular; he was also a steadfast ally of the United States and supported Reagan's more aggressive policies in order to weaken the Soviet Union. Kohl's 16-year tenure was the longest of any German Chancellor since Otto von Bismarck. He oversaw the end of the Cold War and the German reunification, for which he is generally known as Chancellor of Unity. Together with French President François Mitterrand, Kohl was the architect of the Maastricht Treaty, which established the European Union (EU) and the euro currency.[1] Kohl was also a central figure in the eastern enlargement of the European Union, and his government led the effort to push for international recognition of Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina when the states declared independence. He played an instrumental role in solving the Bosnian War. Domestically, Kohl's policies focused on economic reforms and later also on the process of integrating the former East Germany into the reunited Germany, and he moved the federal capital from the "provisional capital" Bonn back to Berlin, although he himself never resided there because the government offices were only relocated in 1999. Kohl also greatly increased federal spending on arts and culture. After his chancellorship, Kohl's reputation suffered domestically because of his role in the CDU donations scandal and he had to resign from his honorary chairmanship of the CDU after little more than a year in January 2000, but he was partly rehabilitated in later years. The later Chancellor Angela Merkel started her political career as Kohl's protegée.
Kohl was described as "the greatest European leader of the second half of the 20th century" by U.S. Presidents George H. W. Bush[2] and Bill Clinton.[3] Kohl received the Charlemagne Prize in 1988 with François Mitterrand; in 1998 Kohl became the second person to be named Honorary Citizen of Europe by the European heads of state or government. Following his death, Kohl was honored with the first ever European Act of State in Strasbourg.[4] Kohl was married to Hannelore Kohl during his entire political career, and they had two sons, Walter Kohl and Peter Kohl.
Helmut Kohl
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Kohl in 1996
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| Chancellor of Germany (West Germany, 1982–1990) | |
| In office 1 October 1982 – 27 October 1998[a] | |
| President | |
| Vice Chancellor | |
| Preceded by | Helmut Schmidt |
| Succeeded by | Gerhard Schröder |
| Leader of the Christian Democratic Union | |
| In office 12 June 1973 – 7 November 1998 | |
| General Secretary | |
| Preceded by | Rainer Barzel |
| Succeeded by | Wolfgang Schäuble |
| Bundestag Leader of the CDU/CSU Group | |
| In office 13 December 1976 – 4 October 1982 | |
| First Deputy | Friedrich Zimmermann |
| Preceded by | Karl Carstens |
| Succeeded by | Alfred Dregger |
| Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate | |
| In office 19 May 1969 – 2 December 1976 | |
| Deputy | Otto Meyer |
| Preceded by | Peter Altmeier |
| Succeeded by | Bernhard Vogel |
| Member of the Bundestag for Rhineland-Palatinate | |
| In office 26 October 1998 – 17 October 2002 | |
| In office 14 December 1976 – 20 December 1990 | |
| Member of the Bundestag for Ludwigshafen/Frankenthal | |
| In office 20 December 1990 – 26 October 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Manfred Reimann |
| Succeeded by | Doris Barnett |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl
3 April 1930 Ludwigshafen, Bavaria, Weimar Republic |
| Died | 16 June 2017 (aged 87) Ludwigshafen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany |
| Resting place | Cathedral Chapter Cemetery, Speyer |
| Political party | Christian Democratic Union |
| Spouse(s) |
Hannelore Renner
(m. 1960; died 2001)
Maike Richter
(m. 2008) |
| Children | |
| Alma mater | Heidelberg University |
| Signature |  |
Born in 1930 in Ludwigshafen to a Roman Catholic family, Kohl joined the Christian Democratic Union in 1946 at the age of 16. He earned a PhD in history at Heidelberg University in 1958 and worked as a business executive before becoming a full-time politician. He was elected as the youngest member of the Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1959 and became Minister-President of his home state in 1969. Viewed during the 1960s and the early 1970s as a progressive within the CDU, he was elected national chairman of the party in 1973. In the 1976 federal election his party performed well, but the social-liberal government of social democrat Helmut Schmidt was able to remain in power, as well as in 1980, when Kohl's rival from the Bavarian sister party CSU, Franz Josef Strauß, candidated. After Schmidt had lost the support of the liberal FDP in 1982, Kohl was elected Chancellor through a switch of the FDP, forming a Christian-liberal government. After he had become party leader, Kohl was increasingly seen as a more conservative figure.
As Chancellor Kohl was strongly committed to European integration and French–German cooperation in particular; he was also a steadfast ally of the United States and supported Reagan's more aggressive policies in order to weaken the Soviet Union. Kohl's 16-year tenure was the longest of any German Chancellor since Otto von Bismarck. He oversaw the end of the Cold War and the German reunification, for which he is generally known as Chancellor of Unity. Together with French President François Mitterrand, Kohl was the architect of the Maastricht Treaty, which established the European Union (EU) and the euro currency.[1] Kohl was also a central figure in the eastern enlargement of the European Union, and his government led the effort to push for international recognition of Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina when the states declared independence. He played an instrumental role in solving the Bosnian War. Domestically, Kohl's policies focused on economic reforms and later also on the process of integrating the former East Germany into the reunited Germany, and he moved the federal capital from the "provisional capital" Bonn back to Berlin, although he himself never resided there because the government offices were only relocated in 1999. Kohl also greatly increased federal spending on arts and culture. After his chancellorship, Kohl's reputation suffered domestically because of his role in the CDU donations scandal and he had to resign from his honorary chairmanship of the CDU after little more than a year in January 2000, but he was partly rehabilitated in later years. The later Chancellor Angela Merkel started her political career as Kohl's protegée.
Kohl was described as "the greatest European leader of the second half of the 20th century" by U.S. Presidents George H. W. Bush[2] and Bill Clinton.[3] Kohl received the Charlemagne Prize in 1988 with François Mitterrand; in 1998 Kohl became the second person to be named Honorary Citizen of Europe by the European heads of state or government. Following his death, Kohl was honored with the first ever European Act of State in Strasbourg.[4] Kohl was married to Hannelore Kohl during his entire political career, and they had two sons, Walter Kohl and Peter Kohl.
Life
Youth and education
Helmut Kohl was born on 3 April 1930 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein (then in Bavaria, now in Rhineland-Palatinate). He was the third child of Hans Kohl (6 January 1887 – 20 October 1975),[5] a Bavarian army veteran and civil servant, and his wife, Cäcilie (née Schnur; 17 November 1891 – 2 August 1979).[6][7]Kohl's family was conservative and Roman Catholic, and remained loyal to the Catholic Centre Party before and after 1933. His elder brother died in World War II as a teenage soldier. At the age of ten, Kohl was obliged, like most children in Germany at the time, to join the Deutsches Jungvolk, a section of the Hitler Youth. Aged 15, on 20 April 1945, Kohl was sworn into the Hitler Youth by leader Artur Axmann at Berchtesgaden, just days before the end of the war, as membership was mandatory for all boys of his age. Kohl was also drafted for military service in 1945; he was not involved in any combat, a fact he later referred to as the "mercy of late birth" (German: Gnade der späten Geburt).[8]
Kohl attended the Ruprecht Elementary School, and continued at the Max-Planck-Gymnasium.[9] After graduating in 1950, Kohl began to study law in Frankfurt am Main, spending two semesters commuting between Ludwigshafen and Frankfurt.[10] Here, Kohl heard lectures from Carlo Schmid and Walter Hallstein, among others.[11] In 1951, Kohl switched to Heidelberg University, where he studied history and political science. Kohl was the first in his family to attend university.[12]
Life before politics
After graduating in 1956, Kohl became a fellow at the Alfred Weber Institute of Heidelberg University under Dolf Sternberger[13] where he was an active member of the student society AIESEC.[14] In 1958, Kohl received his doctorate degree in history for his dissertation Die politische Entwicklung in der Pfalz und das Wiedererstehen der Parteien nach 1945 ("The Political Developments in the Palatinate and the Reconstruction of Political Parties after 1945"), under the supervision of the historian Walther Peter Fuchs.[15] After that, Kohl entered business, first as an assistant to the director of a foundry in Ludwigshafen,[16] then, in April 1960, as a manager for the Industrial Union for Chemistry in Ludwigshafen.[16]Early political career
In 1946, Kohl joined the recently founded CDU,[17] becoming a full member once he turned 18 in 1948.[18] In 1947, Kohl was one of the co-founders of the Junge Union-branch in Ludwigshafen, the CDU youth organisation.[18] In 1953, Kohl joined the board of the Palatinate branch of the CDU. In 1954, Kohl became vice-chair of the Junge Union in Rhineland-Palatinate,[19] being a member of the board until 1961.[20]In January 1955, Kohl ran for a seat on the board of the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU, losing just narrowly to the state's Minister of Family Affairs, Franz-Josef Wuermeling.[19] Kohl was still able to take up a seat on the board, being sent there by his local party branch as a delegate.[21] During his early years in the party, Kohl aimed to open it towards the young generation, turning away from a close relationship with the churches.[22]
Kohl as the CDU Rhineland-Palatinate state party chairman
Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate
Helmut Kohl, 1969
Federal party level, election as chairman of the CDU
Kohl moved up into the federal board (Vorstand) of the CDU in 1964.[32] Two years later, shortly before his election as chairman of the party in Rhineland-Palatinate, he failed at an attempt to be voted into the executive committee (Präsidium) of the party.[33] After the CDU lost its involvement in the federal government for the first time since the end of World War II in the 1969 election, Kohl was elected into the committee.[34] While former chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger remained chairman of the CDU until 1971, it was now parliamentary chairman Rainer Barzel who led the opposition against the newly formed social-liberal coalition of Willy Brandt.[35]As a member of the board and the executive committee, Kohl pushed towards a party reform, supporting liberal stances in education and social policies, including employee participation. When a proposal by the board was put to vote at a party convention in early 1971 in Düsseldorf, Kohl was unable to prevail against protest coming from the conservative wing of the party around Alfred Dregger and the sister party CSU, costing him support at the liberal wing of the party. To make matters worse, in a mistake during the voting process, Kohl himself voted against the proposal, further angering his supporters, such as party treasurer Walther Leisler Kiep.[36]
Kohl at the CDU national party convention in Hamburg in 1973
When chancellor Brandt stepped down in May 1974 following the unraveling of the Guillaume Affair, Kohl urged his party to restrain from Schadenfreude and not to use the position of their political opponent for "cheap polemics".[44] In June, Kohl campaigned during the state elections in Lower Saxony for his party colleague Wilfried Hasselmann, leading the CDU to a strong result of 48.8% of the vote, even though it proved not enough to prevent a continuation of the social-liberal coalition in the state.[45]
First candidacy for the chancellorship and the 1976 Bundestag election
On 9 March 1975, Kohl and the CDU faced re-election in Rhineland-Palatinate. What placed Kohl, who intended to run for chancellor, under increased pressure was the fact that the sister parties of CDU and CSU were set to decide upon their leading candidate for the upcoming federal elections in mid-1975. CSU chairman Franz Josef Strauß had ambitions to run and publicly put Kohl under pressure over what a result would be acceptable in the state elections. On election day, the CDU achieved a result of 53.9 per cent, the highest ever result in the state, consolidating Kohl's position. Strauß' bid for the chancellorship was further put into jeopardy when in March 1975 the magazine Der Spiegel published a transcript of a speech held in November 1974, in which Strauß claimed that the Red Army Faction, a West German armed struggle group responsible for multiple attacks at the time, had sympathizers in the ranks of the SPD and FDP. The scandal deeply unsettled the public and effectively ruled out Strauß for the candidacy.[46]On 12 May 1975, the federal board of the CDU unanimously nominated Kohl as the candidate for the general elections, without consulting their Bavarian sister party beforehand. In reaction, the CSU nominated Strauß and only a mediation by former chancellor Kiesinger was able to resolve the issue and confirm Kohl as the candidate for both parties.[47] In June 1975, Kohl was also re-elected as party chairman, achieving a result of 98.44 per cent.[48]
Kohl in Berlin at a campaign event for the 1976 West German federal election
Leader of the opposition
In the 1980 federal elections, Kohl had to play second fiddle, when CSU-leader Franz Josef Strauß became the CDU/CSU's candidate for chancellor. Strauß was also unable to defeat the coalition of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP). Unlike Kohl, Strauß did not want to continue as the leader of the CDU/CSU and remained Minister-President of Bavaria. Kohl remained as leader of the opposition, under the third Schmidt cabinet (1980–82). On 17 September 1982, a conflict of economic policy occurred between the governing SPD/FDP coalition partners. The FDP wanted to radically liberalise the labour market, while the SPD preferred greater job security. The FDP began talks with the CDU/CSU to form a new government.[51]Chancellor of West Germany
Rise to power
Kohl at a campaign event for the 1983 West German federal election
Election poster for the 1984 European Parliament election signs "Upwards with Germany, with us for Europe!"
Second cabinet
In the federal elections of March 1983, Kohl won a resounding victory. The CDU/CSU won 48.8%, while the FDP won 7.0%. Some opposition members of the Bundestag asked the Federal Constitutional Court to declare the whole proceeding unconstitutional. It denied their claim, but did set restrictions on a similar move in the future. The second Kohl cabinet pushed through several controversial plans, including the stationing of NATO midrange missiles, against major opposition from the peace movement.[53]
Kohl and his wife Hannelore in Cologne, 1983
In 1985, Kohl and U.S. President Ronald Reagan, as part of a plan to observe the 40th anniversary of V-E Day, saw an opportunity to demonstrate the strength of the friendship that existed between Germany and its former foe. During a November 1984 visit to the White House, Kohl appealed to Reagan to join him in symbolizing the reconciliation of their two countries at a German military cemetery. As Reagan visited Germany as part of the 11th G7 summit in Bonn, the pair visited Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on 5 May and, controversially, the German military cemetery at Bitburg.[citation needed]
Domestic policies
Helmut Kohl in 1986
Kohl's time as Chancellor also saw some controversial decisions in the field of social policy. Student aid was made reimbursable to the state[57] while the Health Care Reform Act of 1989 introduced the concept by which patients pay up front and are reimbursed, while increasing patient co-payments for hospitalisation, spa visits, dental prostheses, and prescription drugs.[58] In addition, while a 1986 Baby-Year Pensions reform granted women born after 1921 one year of work-credit per child, lawmakers were forced by public protest to phase in supplementary pension benefits for mothers who were born before the cut-off year.[59]
Third cabinet
Chancellor Kohl at a 1987 European Council meeting with vice chancellor and foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher
Kohl and Erich Honecker at the Federal Chancellery in Bonn.
In 1987, Kohl hosted East German leader Erich Honecker – the first ever visit by an East German head of state to West Germany. This is generally seen as a sign that Kohl pursued Ostpolitik, a policy of détente between East and West that had been begun by the SPD-led governments (and strongly opposed by Kohl's own CDU) during the 1970s.[61]
Internal struggle for CDU leadership
The CDU's general secretary, Heiner Geißler, considered the party to be in a downward spiral following the relatively poor showing in the 1987 elections. Behind the scenes, he attempted to find a majority to unseat Kohl as the party's chairman and replace him with Lothar Späth, the Minister-president of Baden-Württemberg.[62] Before the CDU party convention in Bremen started on 11 September 1989, Kohl was diagnosed with an inflammation of his prostate.[63] His doctor recommended immediate surgery, but Kohl refused to miss the convention and attended while wearing a catheter and with his doctor by his side, who he introduced as his new speech writer.[64] In the end, the "coup" was unsuccessful, as Kohl was re-elected as chairman with 79.52% of the votes.[65] Späth, who did not stand for the position of chairman after support for Kohl became apparent, was punished by his party, failing to be elected as vice-chairman with just 357 of 731 votes.[66] Geißler meanwhile was relieved of his duties as general secretary and replaced by Volker Rühe.[67]Road to reunification
Chancellor Kohl behind and to the right of U.S. President Ronald Reagan (center) at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987. Reagan is challenging Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!"
On 18 May 1990, Kohl signed an economic and social union treaty with East Germany. This treaty stipulated that when reunification took place, it would be under the quicker provisions of Article 23 of the Basic Law. That article stated that any new states could adhere to the Basic Law by a simple majority vote. The alternative would have been the more protracted route of drafting a completely new constitution for the newly reunified country, as provided by Article 146 of the Basic Law. However, the Article 146 process would have opened up contentious issues in West Germany, and would have been impractical in any case since by then East Germany was in a state of utter collapse. In contrast, an Article 23 reunification could be completed in as little as six months.[69]
Helmut Kohl in Krzyżowa (Kreisau) during his visit to Poland in 1989 that coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall
Kohl speaks at the official opening of the Brandenburger Gate on 22 December 1989
Chancellor of reunified Germany
Helmut Kohl in 1990.
Kohl hosts G7 summit in Munich, 1992
Chancellor Kohl and U.S. President Bill Clinton in the Bach House, 14 May 1998
After the federal elections of 1994 Kohl was reelected with a somewhat reduced majority, defeating Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate Rudolf Scharping. The SPD was able to win a majority in the Bundesrat, which significantly limited Kohl's power. In foreign politics, Kohl was more successful, for instance getting Frankfurt am Main as the seat for the European Central Bank. In 1997, Kohl received the Vision for Europe Award for his efforts in the unification of Europe.[75]
By the late 1990s, Kohl's popularity had dropped amid rising unemployment. He was defeated by a large margin in the 1998 federal elections by the Minister-President of Lower Saxony, Gerhard Schröder.[68]
The later Chancellor Angela Merkel started her political career as Kohl's protegée and was known in the 1990s as "Kohl's girl"; in January 1991, he lifted the then little-known Merkel to national prominence by appointing her to the federal cabinet.[76]
Retirement
A red-green coalition government led by Schröder replaced Kohl's government on 27 October 1998. He immediately resigned as CDU leader and largely retired from politics. He remained a member of the Bundestag until he decided not to run for reelection in the 2002 election.[77]CDU finance affair
Kohl's life after political office in the beginning was dominated by the CDU donations scandal. The party financing scandal became public in 1999, when it was discovered that the CDU had received and kept illegal donations during Kohl's leadership.[78] Der Spiegel reported, "It was never suggested that Kohl benefited personally from political donations – but he did lead the party financial system outside of the legal boundaries, doing such things as opening secret bank accounts and establishing civic associations that could act as middle men, or procurement agencies, for campaign donations."[78] While his reputation in Germany suffered in the immediate years after the finance affair, it did not affect his reputation internationally; outside of Germany he was perceived as a great European statesman and remembered for his role in solving the five great problems of his era, the German reunification, European integration, the relations with Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union and the Bosnian War.[79]Life after politics
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Kohl and Vladimir Putin in 2002
As reported in the German press, he also gave his name to the Helmut Kohl Centre for European Studies (currently Centre for European Studies), which is the new political foundation of the European People's Party. In late February 2008, Kohl suffered a stroke in combination with a fall which caused serious head injuries and required his hospitalization, after which he was reported as bound to a wheelchair due to partial paralysis and with difficulty speaking.[83][84][85][86] He remained in intensive care since, marrying his 43-year-old partner, Maike Richter, on 8 May 2008, while still in hospital. In 2010, he had a gall bladder operation in Heidelberg,[87] and heart surgery in 2012.[88] He was reportedly in "critical condition" in June 2015, following intestinal surgery following a hip-replacement procedure.[89]
In 2011, Kohl, despite frail health, began giving a number of interviews and issued statements in which he sharply condemned his successor Angela Merkel, whom he had formerly mentored, on her policies in favor of strict austerity in the European debt crisis and later also towards Russia in the Ukrainian crisis,[90] which he saw as opposed to his politics of peaceful bi-lateral European integration during his time as chancellor. He published the book Aus Sorge um Europa ("Out of Concern for Europe") outlining these criticisms of Merkel (while also attacking his immediate successor Gerhard Schröder's Euro policy)[91][92][93][94] and was widely quoted in the press as saying, "Die macht mir mein Europa kaputt" ("That woman is destroying my Europe").[95][96][97][98][99] Kohl thus joined former German chancellors Gerhard Schröder and Helmut Schmidt in their similar criticisms of Merkel's policies in these two fields.[90][93]
On 19 April 2016, Kohl was visited in his Oggersheim residence by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The two had a one-hour conversation and released a joint press statement regarding the European migrant crisis, saying that both doubted that Europe was capable of continuing to absorb refugees indefinitely.[100] Before the meeting, it had widely been interpreted as criticism of Angela Merkel's handling of the crisis,[101][102] but eventually, Kohl and Orbán refrained from attacking the chancellor directly, writing: "It is about a good future for Europe and peace in the world. The efforts of [Merkel] point in the same direction."[100][103]
In 2016, Kohl sued Random House, his former ghost writer Heribert Schwan and co-author Tilman Jens for publishing without his consent 116 comments allegedly made by Kohl during interviews in 2001 and 2002 and published in an unauthorised biography in 2014 called Legacy: The Kohl Protocols. By April 2017, a German court ordered publisher Random House and the two journalists to pay Kohl damages of 1 million euros ($1.1 million) for violating his privacy, making it the highest judgment ever rendered for violations of privacy rights under German law.[104]
Political views
Kohl was committed to European integration, maintaining close relations with the French President François Mitterrand. Parallel to this he was committed to German reunification. Although he continued the Ostpolitik of his social-democratic predecessors, Kohl supported Reagan's more aggressive policies in order to weaken the Soviet Union.[105] He had a strained relationship with British Prime Minister and fellow conservative Margaret Thatcher,[106][107] although Kohl did allow her secret access to his plans on reunification in March 1990,[108] in order to allay the concerns she shared with Mitterrand.[109]Personality and media portrayals
Kohl
in 1975. In his years as minister-president, Kohl was treated by the
media as a progressive reformer in his own party. This image changed
during the 70s with Kohl's assumption of leadership in the federal
party. He experienced a fundamental animosity of journalists towards
him.
Comedians like Thomas Freitag and Stefan Wald imitated the chancellor,[112] and books were sold with jokes rewritten with Kohl as the stupid protagonist. When Kohl died, left wing newspaper TAZ presented a title page showing a flower set typical for funerals, with a pear and the caption flourishing landscapes, Kohl's euphemism for East Germany after reunification. Following protests the editor-in-chief apologized.[113]
The minister-president of Rhineland-Palatinate (1969–1976) was a young reformer in a somewhat backward state, and a newcomer who heavily criticized the older party leaders. The national media, for as much as they took notice of him, regarded him with curiosity. But this changed when Kohl became chair of the federal party in 1973, and even more dramatically when in late 1975 his party made him candidate for the chancellery. His opponents within the federal party, but also journalists and other observers, had their doubts whether the parochial but successful modernizer of a manageable smaller state was the right person to lead the Federal Republic, a huge and complicated industrial country.[114]
Biographer Hans Peter Schwarz names five problems of the 46 year old candidate: being unfamiliar with the complicated relations in the Bundestag faction, having no international experience, having no profound knowledge of economics, but also: a lack of charisma and no cultural acceptance in Northern Germany.[115]
In small circles Kohl was fascinating and a perfect host; the larger the crowd, the vaguer, weaker and paler he appeared. His gaze into TV cameras made him look helpless. When attacked, e.g. in election campaigns, he became a good fighter. But in general he was no great orator, his speeches were lengthy and verbose. Additionally, the catholic with his Palatinate dialect, a folksy man who had culture but was simply no intellectual – to North German journalists (like from the important newspapers made in Hamburg) he just felt foreign, more than any previous CDU chairman.[116]
Kohl was a true people's person and loved to be in company of groups. His tremendous memory about people and their lives helped him to build up his networks in the Christian Democratic Union, in government and abroad. In a study of German chancellorship as political leadership, Henrik Gast gives examples how much time Kohl invested into personal relationships even with the backbenchers in the Bundestag and also party officials up to the local level. This worked, because it fitted Kohl's character and was authentic.[117]
Kohl knew that all these people were the basis of his political power and that he needed their loyalty and personal affection. He could also be rude to subordinates and assistants, and confront political adversaries. "He was capable of both – being empathetic and being extremely confrontational! If you did not do what he wanted, empathy was over!", as Gast quotes a federal minister of Kohl's own party. There was also a difference between the younger Kohl and the chancellor in his later years, a parliamentary state secretary recalled: "A sense of tact and politeness? The early and the later Kohl – that was a tremendous difference. In the early years he had all of that, in the later years no more."[118]
Personal life
Family of Helmut Kohl
Kohl's wife Hannelore Kohl, to whom he was married from 1960 until her death in 2001
The Kohl family tomb in Ludwigshafen where Hannelore Kohl and both of Helmut Kohl's parents are interred
Both sons were educated in the United States, at Harvard University and MIT, respectively. Walter Kohl worked as a financial analyst with Morgan Stanley in New York City and later founded a consulting firm with his father in 1999. Peter Kohl worked as an investment banker in London for many years. Walter Kohl was formerly married to the business administration academic Christine Volkmann and they have a son, Johannes Volkmann; he is now married to the Korean-born Kyung-Sook Kohl née Hwang. Peter Kohl is married to the Turkish-born investment banker Elif Sözen-Kohl, the daughter of a wealthy Turkish industrialist, and they have a daughter, Leyla Kohl (born 2002).[121]
On 5 July 2001, his wife, Hannelore, committed suicide; she had suffered from photodermatitis for many years.[122]
| Helmut Kohl Chancellor of Germany | Hannelore Kohl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Christine Volkmann | Walter Kohl | Kyung-Sook Kohl | Peter Kohl | Elif Sözen-Kohl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johannes Volkmann | Leyla Kohl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Controversial second marriage (2008–2017)
While in hospital in 2008 after suffering serious head trauma,[123] Kohl, then aged 78, married Maike Richter, a former Chancellery employee who was 44 years old; they had no children. For the entire duration of this marriage, Kohl had a brain injury, was barely able to speak, and was wheelchair-bound. According to Helmut Kohl's son Peter Kohl, Helmut Kohl did not intend to marry Richter and had stated this clearly; "then came the accident and a loss of control," Peter Kohl said, suggesting that Richter had pressured his then seriously ill father into marrying her.[124] Richter has been severely criticized in Germany, by Kohl's children, former friends and by German media.[125] Following his new marriage, Kohl became estranged from his two sons and his grandchildren, and his sons said their father was kept "like a prisoner" by his new wife. His children and grandchildren were also prevented from seeing him by his new wife for the last six years of his life.[126][127][128][129] In his biography of his mother, Peter Kohl wrote about the only time he had visited Richter's apartment, which he described as "a kind of private Helmut Kohl museum" full of Helmut Kohl photographs and artefacts everywhere; "the whole thing looked like the result of a staggering, meticulous collecting for the purpose of hero worship, as we know it from reports on stalkers," Kohl wrote.[130] Jochen Arntz criticized Maike Richter in the Süddeutsche Zeitung in 2012 for building a "wall" around Helmut Kohl and controlling him; as a result he had also become estranged from many former friends disliked by his new wife.[131] Kohl biographer Heribert Schwan describes Richter as "more than conservative, rather German nationalist," and said she insists on the right to "interpretational sovereignty" in relation to Kohl's life and that she has insisted on many proven falsehoods.[132] It caused a scandal when Richter denied Kohl's sons and grandchildren entry to Helmut Kohl's house, the sons' childhood home, after Kohl's death.[133] Richter was also criticized for attempting to take full control of Kohl's funeral, and for trying to prevent Chancellor Merkel from speaking at the ceremony in Strasbourg. Richter wanted the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has fiercely criticized Merkel's refugee policies, to speak instead; she only relented when told it would cause a scandal.[134]Honors and awards
Helmut Kohl received numerous awards and accolades, as well as honorary titles such as doctorates and citizenships. Among others, he was joint recipient of the Charlemagne Prize with French President François Mitterrand for their contribution to Franco-German friendship and European Union.[135] In 1996, Kohl received the Prince of Asturias Award in International Cooperation from Felipe of Spain.[136] In 1998, Kohl was named Honorary Citizen of Europe by the European heads of state or government for his extraordinary work for European integration and cooperation, an honor previously only bestowed on Jean Monnet.[137] After leaving office in 1998, Kohl became the second person after Konrad Adenauer to receive the Grand Cross in Special Design of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton in 1999.[138]Death, European act of state and funeral
Helmut Kohl in 2012
Kohl was honored with an unprecedented European act of state on 1 July in Strasbourg, France.[128] A Catholic requiem mass was subsequently celebrated in Speyer Cathedral. Kohl was interred in the Cathedral Chapter Cemetery ("Domkapitelfriedhof") in Speyer, directly adjacent to the Konrad Adenauer Park and a few hundred metres to the northwest of the Cathedral.[142] It was reported that Kohl had himself chosen the burial location in the late summer of 2015 when his health began to deteriorate. [143]
No member of the Kohl family—Kohl's children and grandchildren—participated in any of the ceremonies, owing to a feud with Kohl's controversial second wife Maike Kohl-Richter, who had among other things barred them from paying their respects to him at his house, ignored their wish for a ceremony in Berlin and their wish that Kohl should be interred alongside his parents and his wife of four decades Hannelore Kohl in the family tomb.[144]
Tributes
Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking from the German Embassy in Rome, said that "this man who was great in every sense of the word—his achievement, his role as a statesman in Germany at its historical moment—it's going to take a while until we can truly assess what we have lost in his passing."[145] She lauded Kohl's "supreme art of statesmanship in the service of people and peace" and noted that Kohl had also changed her own life decisively.[146]Pope Francis lauded Kohl as "a great statesman and committed European [who] worked with farsightedness and devotion for the good of the people in Germany and in neighbouring European countries."[147]
The 14th Dalai Lama praised Kohl as "a visionary leader and statesman" and said he had "great admiration for Chancellor Kohl's steady leadership when the Cold War came to a peaceful end and the re-unification of Germany became possible."[148]
Flags were flown at half-staff at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker lauded Kohl as "a great European."[149] He called Kohl "my mentor, my friend, the very essence of Europe."[150] The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, called Kohl "a friend and a statesman, who helped to reunify Europe."[151]
Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush lauded Kohl as "a true friend of freedom" and "one of the greatest leaders in post-War Europe."[145] Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said he was "deeply saddened" by the death of "my dear friend" whose "visionary leadership prepared Germany and all of Europe for the 21st century." U.S. President Donald Trump said Kohl was "a friend and ally to the United States" and that "he was not only the father of German reunification, but also an advocate for Europe and the transatlantic relationship. The world has benefited from his vision and efforts. His legacy will live on."[152] Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker said Kohl's death means "Germany has lost one of its greatest leaders, the United States has lost one of its best friends and the world has lost a ringing voice for freedom," and that Kohl "more than anyone at the end of the Cold War [...] was the architect of the reunification of Germany" which had "brought freedom to millions and has helped make Europe safer and more prosperous."[153]
French President Emmanuel Macron called Kohl a "great European" and "an architect of united Germany and Franco-German friendship."[150] Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel called Kohl "a true European" who "will be greatly missed."[151][154] Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Kohl was "a great statesman" who had shaped European history.[155] Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy lauded Kohl's role in European history and in the German reunification.[155] Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło called Kohl "an outstanding figure and statesman, a great politician in exceptional times".[156] Italian President Sergio Mattarella called Kohl one of Europe's founding fathers, and said that "he who was, rightly, described as 'the Chancellor of Reunification', worked with far-sightedness and determination, in years marked by deep and epochal changes in world equilibria, to give back unity to his country in the framework of the great project of European integration. As an authentic statesman, he knew how to combine pragmatism and a capacity of vision, furnishing a courageous contribution not only to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, but also to overcoming the dramatic divisions which, for decades, had torn Europe."[157] Former Italian Prime Minister and President of the European Commission Romano Prodi called Kohl "a giant of a united Europe."[157] Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called Kohl the "great old man" of European politics and "Hungary’s friend".[158]
Former British Prime Minister John Major said Kohl was "a towering figure in German and European history" who "entrenched Germany in a wider Europe, in the hope of achieving a unity and peace that the continent had never known before. This required great political strength and courage – both of which qualities Helmut had in abundance."[159] British Prime Minister Theresa May called Kohl "a giant of European history" and said that "I pay tribute to the role he played in helping to end the Cold War and reunify Germany. We have lost the father of modern Germany."[160]
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said that "it was real luck that at that difficult time [1989–1990] leading nations were headed by statesmen with a sense of responsibility, adamant about defending the interests of their countries but also able to consider the interests of others, able to overcome the barrier of prevailing suspicion about partnership and mutual trust. The name of this outstanding German politician will stay in the memory of his compatriots and all Europeans."[153] Russian President Vladimir Putin said "I was lucky to know Helmut Kohl in person. I profoundly admired his wisdom and the ability to make well-considered, far-reaching decisions even in the most difficult situations." He called Kohl a "highly reputed statesman, one of the patriarchs of European and world politics."[150]
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Kohl was "a true European" and the "embodiment of a united Germany in a united Europe."[150] UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Kohl had "played an instrumental role in the peaceful reunification of his country" and that "today's Europe is a product of his vision and his tenacity, in the face of enormous obstacles."[161]
See also
Notes
- From 1 October 1982 to 2 October 1990, Helmut Kohl was Federal Chancellor of West Germany only. From 3 October 1990 until 27 October 1998, he was Federal Chancellor of the reunified Germany.
References
- Section, United Nations News Service (16 June 2017). "UN News – UN chief praises 'vision, tenacity' of the late Helmut Khol, chancellor who reunited Germany". UN News Service Section.
Bibliography
- Köhler, Henning (2014). Helmut Kohl. Ein Leben für die Politik (in German). Cologne: Quadriga Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86995-076-1.
- Schwarz, Hans Peter (2012). Helmut Kohl. Eine politische Biographie (in German). Munich: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt. ISBN 978-3-421-04458-7.
Further reading
- Bickerich, Wolfram; Noack, Hans-Joachim (2010). Helmut Kohl. Die Biografie (in German). Berlin: Rowohlt Verlag. ISBN 978-3-87134-657-6.
- Clemens, Clay; Paterson, William E., eds. (1998). The Kohl Chancellorship. Routledge. ISBN 978-0714644417.
- Eisel, Stephan (2010). Helmut Kohl – Nahaufnahme (in German). Bonn: Bouvier. ISBN 978-3-416-03293-3.
- von Plato, Alexander, The End of the Cold War?: Bush, Kohl, Gorbachev, and the Reunification of Germany (Palgrave Studies in Oral History, 2016). excerpt
- Wicke, Christian (2015). Helmut Kohl's Quest for Normality. His Representation of the German Nation and Himself. New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-78238-573-8.
- Wilsford, David, ed. (1995). Political Leaders of Contemporary Western Europe: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood. pp. 245–253. ISBN 978-0313286230.
External links
Quotations related to Helmut Kohl at Wikiquote
Media related to Helmut Kohl at Wikimedia Commons- helmut-kohl.de – website about Kohl maintained by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation
- Appearances on C-SPAN
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Peter Altmeier |
Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate 1969–1976 |
Succeeded by Bernhard Vogel |
| Preceded by Helmut Schmidt |
Chancellor of West Germany 1982–1990 |
Germany reunifies |
| Recreated |
Chancellor of Germany 1990–1998 |
Succeeded by Gerhard Schröder |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Rainer Barzel |
Leader of the Christian Democratic Union 1973–1998 |
Succeeded by Wolfgang Schäuble |
| Preceded by Karl Carstens |
Chair of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group 1976–1982 |
Succeeded by Alfred Dregger |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by Margaret Thatcher |
Chair of the Group of 7 1985 |
Succeeded by Yasuhiro Nakasone |
| Preceded by John Major |
Chair of the Group of 7 1992 |
Succeeded by Kiichi Miyazawa |
Categories:
- Helmut Kohl
- 1930 births
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- 20th-century Chancellors of Germany
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- Grand Order of Queen Jelena recipients
- Heidelberg University alumni
- Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Members of the Bundestag for Rhineland-Palatinate
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Relations with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, a noted sceptic of Germany’s renewed power after reunification, remained frosty throughout their time in office.
