German visionary Kohl dies aged 87
Tributes paid to chancellor who brought East and West together
HELMUT Kohl, a giant of European politics who oversaw the reunification of Germany, died yesterday aged 87.
The former German chancellor was hailed as “a visionary and statesman” for uniting East and West of the country after Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
Kohl, who was chancellor from 1982 to 1998, was also a driving force behind greater EU integration and the single currency.
Former US president Bill Clinton called him the “most important European statesman since World War II”. Kohl pushed through reunification in the face of resistance from Margaret Thatcher and Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev.
The chancellor recalled 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.”
But the relationships he built with world leaders persuaded them a strong, united Germany could live at peace with its neighbours.
German chancellor Angela Merkel paid tribute and said Kohl was “the right man at the right time” when the winds of change began sweeping through eastern Europe in the 1980s.
Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, said Kohl seized the “historic chance” to overcome decades of division.
Former PM John Major hailed him as a “towering figure in German and European history”.
He added: “He entrenched Germany in a wider Europe, in the hope of achieving unity and peace that the continent had never known before.”
German newspaper Bild reported that Kohl died at his home in Ludwigshafen.
His Christian Democratic Union party posted on Twitter: “We are in sorrow. RIP Helmut Kohl.”