A great politician in exceptional times - PM bids farewell to Helmut Kohl gone at 87
We are bidding farewell to Helmut Kohl, an outstanding figure and statesman, a great politician in exceptional times. May he rest in peace, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo wrote Friday on Twitter.
Helmut Kohl, German Chancellor from 1982 to 1998, died Friday in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany, aged 87.
The longest-serving German Chancellor since Otto von Bismarck, Kohl oversaw the end of the Cold War and is held to have masterminded Germany's reunification. Together with President François Mitterrand of France, he is also considered the architect of the Maastricht Treaty which founded the EU.
US Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton described Kohl as "the greatest European leader of the second half of the 20th century".
Kohl was a strong supporter of European integration, and is remembered for relinquishing German claims to historically German Polish territories east of the two countries' Oder-Neisse border after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Kohl reacted with memorable fury when British PM Margaret Thatcher claimed in an interview for Der Spiegel (26 March, 1990) that he had told her he did not recognise the border with Poland. Kohl strongly denied having made such a statement.
Germany's reunification made it necessary to renegotiate theretofore border treaties with Poland, and on November 14, 1990 Poland and Germany sealed the border treaty in which Germany recognised the Oder-Neisse frontier with Poland.
However, Kohl is believed to have delayed the treaty's signature, fearing that it may anger German expatriates from territories on the Polish side of the frontier. The signature of the treaty required international pressure, among others from then Polish PM Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who supported Germany's reunification but held its recognition of the border with Poland as its pre-condition.
Strong pressure in the matter also came from the US, German-American historian Konrad Jarausch recounting that the Bush administration told Kohl point-blank that there will be no reunification without recognition of the Oder-Neisse line.
Kohl was strongly committed not only to the reunification of Germany, but also a keen supporter of the then US President Ronald Reagan's aggressive policies aimed at weakening the USSR. (PAP)
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