Helmut Kohl

Re the article "At German Helm Since '82, Kohl Is Thriving," Oct. 22: As a German citizen and a former partisan of Helmut Kohl, I read your report with special interest. Indeed, Germany does suffer under stagnation. Kohl might not be the only reason for this situation, but certainly he is a part of the problem. But he can hardly be blamed for this. The lack of alternatives at all is depressing. In my opinion, Kohl is a one-eyed man in the European kingdom of the blind. He is doing his job properly, but nevertheless his term of office is definitely too long.

On Saturday, Helmut Kohl, the "chancellor of German unity," will turn 80. To mark the occasion, Chancellor Angela Merkel and many others in Germany will deliver nice tributes to old King Kohl; yet his country's current approach to Europe, and especially to the embattled Eurozone, risks dismantling his European legacy. If you ask why the European project is faltering today, one of the main reasons is that the German motor has stalled. And if you ask why, the short answer is because Germany has become a "normal" nation, like France and Britain.

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl retired after 26 years in Parliament on Friday but skipped the final session, drawing rebukes from opponents who said he was "slipping out the back door" to dodge questions about a financial scandal. Kohl, chancellor for 16 years but an ordinary deputy since losing the 1998 election, spoke in Parliament only twice in the last four years but was embroiled in many debates as the center of Germany's worst postwar political scandal.

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl retired after 26 years in Parliament on Friday but skipped the final session, drawing rebukes from opponents who said he was "slipping out the back door" to dodge questions about a financial scandal. Kohl, chancellor for 16 years but an ordinary deputy since losing the 1998 election, spoke in Parliament only twice in the last four years but was embroiled in many debates as the center of Germany's worst postwar political scandal.

THE LITTLE EAST GERMAN FARMING VILLAGE OF TRANTOW HAS BEEN SCRUBBED FROM ONE END to the other for its big day. Mayor Uta Kruger, who was shifting hay in the nearby fields when the advance team descended on her a week ago, now stands nervously in her Sunday best outside the village inn, listening for the sounds of the helicopter.

East German Communist officials met Thursday with opposition activists, including two founding members of the outlawed New Forum. It was the first contact between the Communist Party and New Forum, and it seemed to reflect at least tacit acceptance of the organization by the Communist regime. In another policy reversal, the new East German leader, Egon Krenz, talked for 20 minutes by telephone with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

The leader of Germany's tainted Christian Democratic Union resigned Wednesday to allow the opposition party a "fresh start" in winning back voters dismayed by allegations of bribe-taking and influence-peddling that have already discredited former Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Citing personal rather than political reasons, Europe's leading central banker, German Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl, said Thursday that he will resign later this year, four years before the end of his current term. "I have today informed the bank's central council of my wish to leave in the course of this year on personal grounds," Poehl, 61, said in a nine-point written statement issued by the Bundesbank in Frankfurt after the council's morning meeting.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl will make an official visit to Hungary in mid-December, his office said Friday.

The West German Parliament reelected Helmut Kohl as chancellor for a second four-year term. Tough political problems and a stalled economy await his weakened center-right coalition government.

Wiretap recordings of Helmut Kohl collected by the East German secret police were sealed by a court, handing the former chancellor a victory with broad implications for public access to the Communist-era spy files. Kohl, whose 16 years in power included the reunification of Germany in 1990, had argued that he was entitled to protection under the law for victims of the Stasi secret police.

Hundreds of mourners fell silent Wednesday as Germany's former Chancellor Helmut Kohl shook holy water onto his wife's coffin to bid her farewell. About 1,000 people attended a memorial Mass with Kohl, the couple's two sons and foreign dignitaries in the 11th century Speyer Cathedral. Hannelore Kohl, 68, killed herself last week rather than continue to fight a rare disease that confined her to darkness.

Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl's wife, Hannelore, was found dead Thursday at the family home in Oggersheim. Letters left for her husband, sons and friends indicated that she had taken her own life to escape the pain of a rare illness that made her allergic to sunlight.

Helmut Kohl won a court ruling Wednesday blocking the release of his conversations that were secretly recorded by East German spies, a victory in the former chancellor's attempts to defend his legacy as the leader who reunited Germany. After a one-day hearing, the Berlin administrative court agreed with Kohl's lawyers, who argued that he could claim protection under provisions shielding the victims of surveillance by the East's pervasive communist-era secret police, the Stasi.

German justice authorities announced Friday that a criminal investigation of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl has been closed in exchange for his payment of a $140,000 fine, but the political financing scandal that has besmirched his reputation appears far from over. Dropping the inquiry closes the door to criminal charges but leaves the former leader with no grounds to invoke a right against self-incrimination under questioning in a parliamentary probe still underway.

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has agreed to pay a $140,000 fine--and avoid criminal prosecution--under a deal offered by prosecutors to close a criminal inquiry into his role in a party financing scandal. Under the deal, Kohl would acknowledge a "breach of trust" for illegally accepting at least $1 million in cash donations for his Christian Democratic Union, his lawyer said.

Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev will meet in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on July 5, a German spokesman said. The New York Times reported that Kohl plans to coach Gorbachev on ways to win Western aid at the July 15-17 economic summit in London.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl warned the East German government that it must move ahead more rapidly with reforms in order to stave off economic disaster. Kohl cited the large number of East Germans who continue to leave the country as a measure of the lack of confidence in the new Communist government.

The sprawling federal chancellery nearing completion beside the Spree River is an outsize architectural achievement that this city's cognoscenti either hate to love or love to hate. Even the architect who designed the latest star on Berlin's ever-changing skyline concedes that the project suffers from its gargantuan scale.

Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl warned Germans against nationalism Tuesday and urged commitment to a united Europe as he returned to the scene of a triumphant pro-unification speech 11 years ago. Addressing a cheering crowd of about 14,000 outside a landmark Dresden church now being rebuilt, Kohl said Germany's main task as Europe's largest nation is to remain on good terms with its neighbors and allies--especially as the European Union expands eastward.