Background
Helmut Kohl was born on April 3, 1930, in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany, in a Roman Catholic family to Hans Kohl, a civil servant, and Cäcilie Schnur. He was the third child of the couple.
historian political scientist statesman
Helmut Kohl was born on April 3, 1930, in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany, in a Roman Catholic family to Hans Kohl, a civil servant, and Cäcilie Schnur. He was the third child of the couple.
Kohl studied at the Ruprecht elementary school, and then at the Max Planck Gymnasium.
After graduating in 1950, he began to study law in Frankfurt am Main.
In 1951 he switched to the University of Heidelberg where he majored in History and Political Science.
After graduating in 1956, Kohl became a fellow at the Alfred Weber Institute of the University of Heidelberg, and in 1958 he received his doctorate degree in history for his thesis, The Political Developments in the Palatinate and the Reconstruction of Political Parties after 1945.
In 1996 he was made honorary doctor of the Catholic University of Louvain and received a Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa from the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, a Jesuit run institution. In 1998, he received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
His first job was as an assistant to the director of a foundry in Ludwigshafen. A year later, he served as the manager for the Industrial Union for Chemistry in Ludwigshafen.
His political career kick started when he was elected as the leader of the CDU party in the municipal council of Ludwigshafen in 1960, a position he retained until 1969. Meanwhile, he was also elected as the Landtag and served as leader of the CDU party in that legislature.
From 1966 until 1973, he took up the chair of the CDU's state branch. Over time, he developed a reputation as a capable administrator and soon was deemed as a successor to Peter Altmeier, then minister-president of Rhineland-Palatinate.
He succeeded Altmeier in 1969. Same year, he became the vice chairman of the federal CDU party. During his term as the minister-president, he brought about territorial reform and founded the University of Trier Kaiserslautern.
By 1973, he succeeded Rainer Barzel as the chairman of the federal CDU and retained this position until 1998.
In the 1976 federal elections, Kohl was the chancellor candidate of the CDU and the the Christian Social Union (CSU) alliance but lost to Social Democratic Party (SDP).
In the 1980 federal elections, Franz Josef Strauß became the CDU/CSU's candidate for chancellor. The CDU/CSU alliance was unable to defeat the SPD/FDP alliance. Since Strauß did not want to continue as the leader of the CDU/CSU, Kohl was chosen for the position. He served as the Leader of the Opposition.
Conflicting thoughts and policies between the governing coalition partners SPD/FDP led to talks between FDP and CDU/CSU to form a new government. A vote of no confidence against the ruling government was passed on October 1, 1982 and a new alliance was formed with FDP and CDU/CSU. Kohl emerged as the chosen candidate for the chair of the chancellor.
In the 1983 elections, the CDU/CSU-FDP coalition won a staggering 58-seat majority, which further solidified Kohl’s position as the Chancellor of West Germany.
During his tenure as the Chancellor, he followed centrist policies that supported West Germany’s commitment to NATO against major opposition from the peace movement. He curtailed governmental expenditure and spending.
The historic France-Germany reconciliation happened during his term as the Chancellor. He and French president, Francois Mitterrand shook hands, commemorating the dead in both the World Wars. The two nations developed close political relationship which proved vital for economic development.
He also reconciled the strained relationship with United States of America by inviting then President Ronald Reagan at a German military cemetery. In response, Reagan became a part of the G6 conference and together with Kohl, visited German military cemetery at Bitburg.
In the 1987 federal elections, the CDU/CSU and FDP coalition again won by a majority of 45 seats, which helped him, retain his position as a Chancellor. Same year, he invited East German leader Erich Honecker, which was the first sign of reunification. The move, however, earned him flak by his own party members.
Following the Soviet Union’s abandonment of control over Eastern Europe and breach of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he fastened the reunification process of the West and East Germany, which became the turning point in his tenure of chancellorship.
Making the most of the political changes, he presented a ten-point plan for Overcoming of the division of Germany and Europe. He further gained a vote of confidence from Mikhail Gorbachev for peaceful reunification of Germany.
In 1990, when East Germany held its first democratic elections, he campaigned vigorously for CDU’s sister parties which successfully formed a government. He then formed a treaty that unified the two countries’ economic and social welfare system. He also promised the East German currency to be of the same value as that of West Germany.
A reunification treaty was signed on August 31, 1990 and was overwhelmingly approved by both the parliaments. October 3, 1990 was a historic day as East Germany officially ceased to exist and both the parts came under unified Germany.
The first free election in reunified Germany was held in December 1990. The CDU/CSU-FDP coalition won a staggering 134-seats majority in Bundestag. He retained his position and became the first Chancellor of reunified Germany.
With a vast region to look into, governance became a problem as he had to employ new tax and cut down governmental spending to finance the country as a whole. This increasing tax burden discontented the people as severe recession hit the country in 1992 - 1993.
The country’s dwindling financial status coupled with escalating unemployment problem directly affected his popularity which was visible in the 1994 elections as he narrowly defeated Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate Rudolf Scharping.
Further financial, economic and social problems turned disastrous for him as faced his first defeat in years in the parliamentary elections held on September 27, 1998. Following year, he was involved in a scandal arising from the collection of illegal campaign contributions.
In 2000, he resigned from his party offices. He was charged with serious accusations of misusing funds. All through, he suffered from legal problems and charges for which he was assessed a fine in February 2001.
In 2002, Kohl left the Bundestag and officially retired from politics. Later, he was largely rehabilitated by his party. After taking office, Angela Merkel invited her former patron to the Chancellor's Office and Ronald Pofalla, the Secretary-General of the CDU, announced that the CDU would cooperate more closely with Kohl, "to take advantage of the experience of this great statesman."
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.
In 2010, he had a gall bladder operation in Heidelberg, and heart surgery in 2012. He was reportedly in "critical condition" in June 2015, following intestinal surgery following a hip-replacement procedure.
On April 19, 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. Before the meeting, it had widely been interpreted as criticism of Angela Merkel's handling of the crisis, but eventually, Kohl and Orbán refrained from attacking the chancellor directly.
Helmut Kohl died on June 16, 2017, in the Oggersheim district of Ludwigshafen, his hometown, aged 87. Kohl was interred in the Cathedral Chapter Cemetery ("Domkapitelfriedhof") in Speyer. 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, 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 first wife.
Helmut Kohl has been a Cold War statesman on the side of democracy, peace and stability in Europe, whose greatest achievement, German re-unification, fulfilled the aspirations of millions of Germans from the end of World War II until the dramatic events surrounding the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
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.
Helmut Kohl was also an honorary citizen of both Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, and on September 2, 2005 he was made an honorary citizen of his hometown, Ludwigshafen.
(Der Weg zur Wende: Von der Wohlfahrtsgesellschaft zur Lei...)
(Die Erinnerungen Helmut Kohls an den deutschen Einigungsp...)
Helmut Kohl had strong, although complex and somewhat ambiguous political views, focusing on economic matters and on international politics.
Economically, Kohl's political views and policies were influenced by Ronald Reagan's and Margaret Thatcher's neoliberalism (reform of the welfare state, lowering taxation to allow individual initiative) although Christian-Democracy traditionally includes elements drawn from social Catholicism.
In international politics Kohl was committed to European integration, maintaining close relations with the French president Mitterrand. Parallel to this he was committed to German Reunification. Although he continued the Ostpolitik of his social-democratic predecessor (designed to influence change in the East by rapprochement, not confrontation, avoiding some of the extremes of Cold War politics), Kohl also supported Reagan's more aggressive policies in order to weaken the USSR.
Quotations:
"Where there is no will, no rules or laws can help."
"We humans have an abyss inside us. The more power people have, the greater the danger."
"German and European unification are two sides of the same coin."
"Two decisions have damaged the stability both of the euro and of Europe: the premature admission of Greece to the euro area and the breach and subsequent weakening of the stability and growth pact."
"When people come to write about my period of office, I would be very happy if they say that I made a contribution to finding the happy medium again for the Germans."
From December 20, 1998, to October 26, 1998, Helmut Kohl was a member of the Bundestag for Ludwigshafen/Frankenthal.
Bundestag , Germany
1990 - 1998
From October 26, 1998, to October 17, 2002, Kohl served as the member of the Bundestag for Rhineland-Palatinate as well.
Bundestag , Germany
1998 - 2002
Quotes from others about the person
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. (Vladimir Putin)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called Kohl the "great old man" of European politics and "Hungary’s friend."
French President Emmanuel Macron called Kohl a "great European" and "an architect of united Germany and Franco-German friendship."
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."
On June 27, 1960, Helmut Kohl married Hannelore Renner, after he had already asked for her hand in marriage in 1953, delaying the ceremony until he was financially stable. The couple was blessed with two sons. Hannelore committed suicide on July 5, 2001, after suffering from photodermatitis for many years.
On May 8, 2008, Helmut Kohl married his partner Maike Richter, a former Chancellery employee, who was 44 years old; they had no children. This marriage was rather controversial. 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.
Hans Kohl a German imperial army veteran and civil servant.
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman who served as the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1949 to 1963.
Helmut Kohl spent his entire political life in the same political party with Konrad Adenauer and shared the same goal of his mentor: rebuilding Germany within a united Europe after World War II.
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was a French statesman who was President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office of any French president.
Walter Kohl is a German financial analyst, businessman and author.
Maike Kohl-Richter is a German economist and journalist.
Peter Kohl is a German businessman and author, who resides in Switzerland.
