RIP Helmut Kohl

[bayonetbrant]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40307918

Helmut Kohl, Germany's ex-chancellor and architect of reunification in 1990, has died at 87.

Kohl led Germany for 16 years (from 1982 to 1998). He is credited with bringing East and West Germany together after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Together with his French ally President Francois Mitterrand, he was responsible for the introduction of the euro.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has ordered flags at EU institutions to be flown at half-mast.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Kohl's former protegee who later called for his resignation over a political funding scandal, said his death filled her with deep sadness.

"Helmut Kohl's efforts brought about the two greatest achievements in German politics of recent decades - German reunification and European unity," she said.

"Helmut Kohl understood that the two things were inseparable."

He was the chancellor pretty much the entire time I was living in Germany in the 80s.

[Staggerwing]

RIP Helmut. You left Germany a much bigger place than you found it.

[Sir Slash]

A great German leader without Panzers and Stukas surrounding him was a very encouraging sign for me as a youngster. R.I.P. Herr Kohl.

[Ubercat]

RIP Helmut. You left Germany a much bigger place than you found it.

Amen. And it's a disgrace that Merkel is now doing her best to destroy it.  >:( :'(

[Gusington]

RIP

[Greybriar]

Rest in peace, Helmut Kohl. You served your country well.