Helmut Kohl, chancellor who reunited Germany, dies at 87
Posted June 16, 2017 7:00 am
BERLIN (AP) - Helmut Kohl, the physically imposing German chancellor whose reunification of a nation divided by the Cold War put Germany at the heart of a united Europe, has died at 87.
Kohl's Christian Democratic Union Party posted on Twitter: "We are in sorrow. #RIP #HelmutKohl."
The German newspaper Bild reported that Kohl died Friday at his home in Ludwigshafen.
Kohl's 16-year tenure as chancellor stretched from 1982 to 1998.
He combined a dogged pursuit of European unity with a keen instinct for history following the November 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. Kohl spearheaded, less than a year later, the end of Germany's division at the front line of the Cold War.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton once described Kohl as "the most important European statesman since World War II."
FILE - The Jan. 8, 2003 file photo shows former German chancellor Helmut Kohl passing the Brandenburg Gate during a private walk in Berlin. (AP Photo/Jan Bauer, file)
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FILE - The Aug. 29, 2001 file photo shows former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl of the Christian Democrats is illuminated by sunlight as he listens to the debate in the parliament, during a special session about the deployment of about 500 German troops for the NATO operation Essential Harvest in Macedonia. (AP Photo/Jockel Finck, file)
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FILE - The Oct. 3, 2010 file photo shows former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, left, waveing to audience as he arrives with his wife Maike Kohl-Richter, center, and Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, prior to the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of Germany's reunification. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)
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FILE- The Sept. 22, 1984 file photo shows then French President Francois Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl standing hand-in-hand as they listen to their respective national anthems during a French-German reconciliation ceremony outside the Doaumont cemetery near Verdun. Verdun was the bloodiest battlefield in World War I. (AP Photo, file)
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FILE - The June 10, 1984 file photo shows Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, second left, standing with, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, left, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, second right, and Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at London's Buckingham Palace, prior to a dinner for summit leaders. (AP Photo, file)
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FILE - The June 20, 1997 file photo shows President Clinton welcomes German Chancellor Helmut Kohl prior to a formal dinner for the leading dignitaries of the Summit of the Eight at the University of Denver's Phipps House in Denver. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
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FILE - The July 17, 1990 file photo shows Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, center,sitting with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, right, and German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher at a table in the garden of the guest house in Archiz during a break in their talks on the discussion of NATO-membership of United Germany, the most difficult topic in the negotiations to German unification. In the background are German government spokesman Hans Klein, West German Finance Minister Theo Waigel, sixth from left, Raissa Gorbacheva, Soviet Finance Minister Pavlov and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, third from right. The other persons are unidentified delegation members. (AP Photo/Roberto Pfeil, file)
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FILE - The June 8, 1998 file photo shows German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, right, guiding Russian President Boris Yeltsin through the park after Yeltsin's arrival for talks at the Bonn Chancellery. (AP Photo/Fritz Reiss, file)
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FILE - The May 8, 2004 file photo shows former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl waving to supporters in front of a European flag during the start of the election campaign of his Christian Democratic Party CDU in Saarbruecken, southwestern Germany. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
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FILE - The Oct. 8, 2010 file photo shows former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl talking to visitors and media about a picture book on him that was introduced at the book fair in Frankfurt, central Germany. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
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FILE - The Sept. 7, 1997 file photo shows East German leader Erich Honecker and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, right, as they review the guard of honor at the chancellery in Bonn, western Germany, during the first official state visit of a East German government head to West Germany. (AP Photo/Fritz Reiss, file)
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FILE - The April 5, 2013 file photo shows former German chancellor Helmut Kohl on the shore of Lake Tegernsee in Bad Wiessee, southern Germany. (Frank Leonhardt/dpa via AP, file)
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