Germany’s longest serving post-war leader, Helmut Kohl, the father of German reunification and an architect of European integration, died Friday at the age of 87.
Kohl, a passionate European, helped long- divided Germany navigate the traumatic
transition to a reunified country, and later worked with France’s Francois Mitterand to
put Germany at the core of the European project.
Tributes poured in for the man US former president George H.W. Bush hailed as “one of the greatest” postwar leaders, and
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker called the “very essence of Europe”.
“We are mourning. #RIP #HelmutKohl,” said his conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), on Twitter, with a
photo of the former leader, who served as chancellor for 16 years.
Kohl died in his house in Ludwigshafen, in the southwestern state of Rhineland-
Palatinate, said Bild daily, whose
management had close ties with the conservative politician.
Juncker, mourning the loss of Kohl, “a great European and a very close friend”, said:
“Helmut Kohl filled the European house with life – not only because he built bridges to the west as well as to the east, but also
because he never ceased to design even better blueprints for the future of Europe.”
Also underlining his contributions, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel called Kohl
“a great statesman, a great German politician, and above all a great European, who did much not only to bring German
unity but also for Europe to become one”.
“This is his great legacy. This is what we will remember him for. Our thoughts are with
his family and children. A truly great German has died,” said Gabriel in a statement.
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