Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Kohl, architect of German unification, has died at 87
HELMUT Kohl, a giant of European politics who oversaw the reunification of Germany, has died aged 87. The former German Chancellor was hailed as “a visionary and statesman” for uniting the East and West of the country after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Mr Kohl, Chancellor from 1982 to 1998, was also a driving force behind greater EU integration, including the single currency. EX-US President Bill Clinton called him the “most important European statesman since World War Two”. He secured reunification in the face of resistance from Margaret Thatcher and Russia’s Mikhail Gorbachev. Mr Kohl recalled Mrs Thatcher’s anger at being forced to recognise the united country, quoting her as saying: “We have beaten the Germans twice. Now they are back.”