Kohl, Helmut (1930—)

Helmut Kohl, born in 1930, was German chancellor from 1982 to 1998. In the course of his political career, he has also held the post of prime minister of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1969 to 1976 and was chairman of the Christian Democratic Party from 1973 to 1998. Kohl is especially known as the chancellor of German reunification.

At the beginning of his career at the Federal State level, Kohl had positive media responses most of the time, especially in the regional media, and he was regarded as the upcoming man of the Christian Democratic Union. His relationship to the media changed for the worse, however, when he became a chairman of his party's program commission in 1970; it deteriorated even further when he took ...