Juliane weber helmut kohl wife
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Angela Merkel was unprepared when the information reached her. Last Friday, at 5:17 p.m., news broke that Helmut Kohl had died, but no one had informed the German chancellor in advance of the first wire stories. She turned to her personal and said, "First, we need to get confirmation."
Merkel's motorcade had just arrived at the Vatican and she retreated with confidantes to the Santa Maria della Pietà church at the Campo Santo Teutonico cemetery, where she called Maike Kohl-Richter, to offer her condolences to the widow. But the conversation also touched on the immediate future, such as the funeral during which Germany could bid farewell to the chancellor responsible for German reunification. Kohl-Richter told Merkel of the idea to have an EU state funeral. The chancellor got the impression that Kohl's widow had already spoken to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker about the plan and that the decision had already been made.
Germany has an established tradition when
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Everyone has an opinion about former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. He led the country for 16 years, becoming an institution of postwar Germany. Many young people became politicized during his tenure, in one direction or another. Today, some see him as the architect of German reunification and a great European, while others regard him as an assiduous string-puller or associate him mainly with an illegal campaign contribution scandal that tarnished his reputation and that of his party, the conservative Christian Democratic Union.
Even as an 80-year-old, Kohl still manages to divide public opinion. In Dresden, the local chapters of the CDU and the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) want the city to become the first in Germany to erect a monument to Kohl. It would pay tribute to a speech the then-chancellor made in December 1989, a month after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in front of hundreds of thousands of citizens of what was still East Germany. A plaque or a stele is
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Helmut Kohl, Giant
RONALD REAGAN, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II all enjoy firmly established reputations as giants of the late twentieth century. Each will be remembered for unwavering stands that hastened the demise of the Soviet Union and its global empire of anti-democratic power and ideology. When the history of the period is fully sorted out, though, there is a fourth central figure, a leader far less acclaimed in his own time, who is certain to get his due. Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s legacy is truly remarkable — so much so that history will likely regard him as one of the most influential figures of modern Europe.
Pope John Paul II proved to be a remarkable strategist who brilliantly combined symbolism and rhetoric in his effort to de-legitimize Soviet Communism and its conquests. Ronald Reagan rebuilt America’s military might and took the offensive against entrenched Soviet power around the globe. Margaret Thatcher was Ronald Reagan’s staunchest ally