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Helmut Kohl Photo by CDU

Top 10 Fun Facts about Helmut Kohl

Helmut Kohl was born April 3, 1930, in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany, and died June 16, 2017, in Ludwigshafen am Rhein. He was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1983-1998 and leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 -1998). He served as chancellor for sixteen years being the longest of any German chancellor since Otto Von Bismarck.

He was married to Hannelore Renner on June, 27,1960 after having known each other since 1948, they met in a dancing class. They were blessed with 2 sons; Walter Kohl born in(1963) and Peyer Kohl born in (1965). Hannelore Kohl was educated and could speak fluent French and English during her husband’s political career. Kohl later married Maike Richter, a former Chancellery employee, they had no child together.

He grew up in a conservative Roman Catholic family. During wartime in Germany when he was a teenager, Kohl was sent to basic training but the war ended before he had to fight. His interest in politics started showing early, at age of 16 he joined the Christian Democratic Party ( CDU) and at 18 years he became a full member of CDU.

On April 19, 1959, he was elected as the youngest member of the state diet, the Landtag Rhineland Palatinate. He was also elected to the municipal council of Ludwigshafen and served as leader of the CDU party from 1960-1969. Kohl moved up into a deputy position when Wilhelm Boden died in late 1961, the chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in the Landtag.

1. He united Europe and Germany

Helmut Kohl was one of a trio of dominant western conservative politicians together with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. He determined ideological and practical opposition to the Soviet Union supported guide in the closing months of 1989 to the fall of the Berlin wall and successive end of the cold war that had gripped Europe since 1945.

Kohl produced his unilateral 10-point plan to help overcome the Division of Germany and Europe without quotation from western wartime power, the United States, British, or France. He travelled to Moscow to seek President Mikhail Gorbachev’s acquiescence in German reunification.

He signed a fast-track economic and social union treaty with the East German leaders. In December 1990 the first all-German free election since the Nazi period conferred an expanded majority on kohl’s coalition.

Germany was once again united after 45 years of division. Kohl helped negotiate the Treaty on the European Union which established the European Union(EU)and led to the introduction of the euro, the European Union’s single currency.

2. Oversaw the end of the cold war

The chancellor of German kohl had seen the end of the cold war. He worked harder to ensure he brings nothing but peace, harmony and unity to German. In 1989 the Berlin war fell signaling the end of the cold war. The following year the two German states divided for 45 years reunited.   

3. Kohl was the first member of his family to join the university

Kohl became the first member of his family to receive a College Degree. In 1958 he received a doctorate in political science. He went to the Universities of Frankfurt and Heidelberg where he studied law, social and political science, and history and received a PhD.

In 1947, he joined the Christian Democratic party(CDU) and later became chairman of the CDU, Rhineland-Palatinate, for six years. He became part of the CDU national executive in 1964. From 1969-1976, kohl served as Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, from 1976 to 1982 he served as a Leader of the Opposition in the Germany Bundestag. 

4. Signed an economy and Social union Treaty with East Germany

Helmut Kohl Photo by Bundesarchiv

The document was a success for West Germany Chancellor Helmut Kohl, whose conservative government was increasingly worried by East Germany’s smooth economic failure and rising social chaos would force a far-less dignified union. However, Mr Kohl was forced to accept several key issues by opposition Social Democrats.

Kohl and East Germany Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere eyed as west Germany Finance Minister Theo Waigel and his East German counterpart, Walter Romberg, signed the document in the Gobelin Hall of the former Chancellery.

After East and West Germany signed a key treaty for economic, monetary, and social union, Helmut Kohl announced that this marks the “birth of the free and unified Germany”

5. Elected as the youngest member of parliament

After Helmut Kohl finished his education and worked in several posts he was voted in as the premier Rhineland -Palatinate in 1959, at age of 39, he was the youngest person ever to hold the position. The CDU and its Bavarian sister party the Christian SociJial Union (CSU), nominated him as their candidate for chancellor in the parliamentary election in 1976.

He managed to score 48.6 per cent of the vote being the union’s best second, however, this was not enough to keep Kohl to Schmidt’s Social Democrats (SDP) from staying in poser with the free-market liberal (FDP).

6. First Chancellor of Reunified Germany

Helmut Kohl Photo by European Communities

After uniting west German and East German, Helmut Kohl became the first chancellor of reunited Germany. He was chancellor for 16years. His term in office will always be associated with the happiest scene in modern German history. He managed a peaceful revolution in the German Democratic Republic and managed to reunite Germany in peace and liberty after years of division.

7. Donation Scandal Tarnished Kohl’s Reputation

Germans were disappointed by the Kohl system and many of them urged that he was only interested in holding onto power. A union of the Social Democratic Party, and Greens won parliament’s elections in October 1998, and after 16 years Helmut Kohl was once more a member of the German Parliament’s opposition.

In 1999, news aired that his CDU was involved in receiving illegal donations through several secret bank accounts. Initially, he reject any involvement in the crime and said his behaviour was beyond reproach. However, he later confessed to having received millions of Deutschmarks worth of illegal contributions. 

8. Introduced Several Reform Policies

Kohl introduced various policies while he was a Chancellor. The policy aimed to help the suffering. He introduced an allowance for parents to help raise their children. and increased unemployment benefits for older citizens. He also introduced unpopular policies such as the Health Care Reform Act of 1989.

9. Loved To be In the Company Of people

Helmut was known as a peaceful and thoughtful person whose wish was to unify German. He was a German Everyman, he associated with everybody despite their status. Robert Leicht, (political commentator for the Hamburg weekly Die Zeit) says that “I often disagree with Kohl but I take it for granted he is a harmonize. His whole life is dominated by the idea that we must fit into the framework. It makes him a man who deserves to be trusted.” That proves he was a man of people.

10. He was a Great and Flawed Statesman

Helmut Kohl Photo by SSGT F. LEE Corkran

Germany’s chancellor from 1982 to 1998, will be remembered by Germany as one of the best and greatest leaders and also of its most flawed.

His towering and darkly ponderous frame seemed to literally embody his centre-right Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and later the country itself for generations of German in both best and the worst ways.