Helmut Kohl

Former German Chancellor

Helmut Kohl was born in Ludwigshafen, Germany. He grew up in a conservative and nationalistic Roman Catholic home. His father was an officer in the German army during World War II. His older brother was killed in action during the war. As the war came to a close, Kohl was stationed in Berchtesgaden at a pre-military training camp. When the War ended, he walked home across a devastated Germany.

Kohl studied law, political science and history at the universities of Frankfurt and Heidelberg, and got his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg in 1958.

He first worked as a department head in an industrial association, a position he kept from 1958 until 1969 while he worked his way up the ladder in politics. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since he was a teenager, he rose rapidly through party ranks. He was elected to the state legislature in 1959, and entered national politics in 1964 when he was elected to become executive of the federal CDU organization. He was Minister-President of his home state, Rhineland-Palatinate, from 1969 until 1976. He became a member of the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, in 1976. He lost a bid for the federal chancellorship in October, 1976 but was made chancellor of West Germany in 1982 when the Bundestag voted to remove Helmut Schmidt. Kohl was reelected to that position in 1983, and won every subsequent election.

Kohl was instrumental in promoting German reunification. The country was still divided along zones of occupation established at the end of World War II. As the USSR collapsed, the Soviet Bloc nations regained independence. The end of the Berlin Wall came on November 9, 1989 when the East German government announced its decision to open its borders to the West. West Germany and East Germany were reunited on October 3, 1990, and Germany's first nationwide elections since the War were held in December. Kohl won and remained chancellor after reunification.