German court bans more passages in Helmut Kohl biography
February 6, 2024
A court in Cologne has forbidden the publication of further passages from a book about former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The legal dispute between Kohl's second wife and his former memoir ghostwriter goes back years.
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The Higher Regional Court of Cologne on Tuesday banned further passages of a book containing revelations about late German chancellor Helmut Kohl.
The ruling is the latest twist in an ongoing legal dispute involving Kohl's second wife Maike Kohl-Richter and the politician's autobiographical ghostwriter Heribert Schwan.
What the ruling said
The court said it had established a duty of confidentiality between Kohl and Schwan.
Witnesses such as Kohl's son Walter, who is on bad terms with Kohl-Richter, had said in previous proceedings that there had been no written confidentiality agreement with Schwan.
However, the court said it assumed that confidentiality was implied because Schwan had worked for Kohl.
It said this stretched not only to the reproduction of any statements made by Kohl but also to the author's own evaluations of the former chancellor.
Schwan told the DPA news agency he was disappointed by the decision, and that he would not have agreed to the ghostwriting task if he had been asked to keep things confidential.
Schwann added that, from a journalistic point of view, it was "inconceivable" that even passages that do not relate to statements by Helmut Kohl, but rather to assessments of him, had been banned.
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How did the court case arise?
The legal dispute has dragged on for years and relates to the book "Vermächtnis — die Kohl-Protokolle" ("Legacy — the Kohl Transcripts").
Schwan had recorded long accounts from Kohl about his political life on tape to tell the conservative Christian Democrat leader's story in the successive volumes of his multi-volume autobiography "Errinerungen" (Memoirs).
However, before he wrote the last book in the series, Schwan and Kohl fell out.
Helmut Kohl: Man of history
By 1989, his political career was almost finished - but then Helmut Kohl "grabbed the mantle of history." His legacy as the sixth post-war German chancellor is primarily characterized by his domestic and European policy.
Image: Getty Images/Hulton Archive
Mourning in Strasbourg
Helmut Kohl played a significant part in the shaping of modern-day Europe. He extended the continent and opened up its borders, internal and external. His belief in and commitment to a united Europe was absolute, and for this he will never be forgotten. At his memorial service in Strasbourg, assembled heads of state expressed their gratitude.
Image: Reuters/A. Wiegmann
Ambitious career plans
He knew what he wanted early on. He never saw himself as the "grandson" of Konrad Adenauer, the first post-war German chancellor, but realized that the "old man's" influence could be useful. As a young politician in Rhineland-Palatinate, he invited Adenauer to address the regional CDU conference behind the back of the CDU state premier, Peter Altmeier. Adenauer came - a boost for Kohl.
Image: Getty Images/Hulton Archive
The politician at home
Kohl, a historian, was also a modernizer. He discovered the power of the media in the early 1970s, when he was still a local politician in Rhineland-Palatinate. He often opened up his home in Oggersheim to journalists. Their portraits of him as a father figure and family man helped establish his image. Kohl was ambitious and dynamic, and embodied the desire for advancement typical of his time.
Image: imago/Sven Simon
Chancellor!
On October 1, 1982, Kohl realized his ultimate political dream. The simple provincial boy became chancellor, succeeding the "world statesman" Helmut Schmidt (SPD). In this period Kohl was the target of mockery and ridicule in left-wing social circles, where he was nicknamed "The Pear." Many people underestimated his high political professionalism and tenacity. Kohl's true moment was yet to come.
Image: picture-alliance/ dpa/dpaweb
A sense of symbolism
A gesture for the history books: September 22, 1984, in a military cemetery near Verdun. Who held out the hand to whom? It was French President Francois Mitterand, and Helmut Kohl was happy to take it. The photograph capturing this moment amid the graves of German and French soldiers has long since become an icon of contemporary history.
Image: Getty Images
1989: Almost the end of his career
Kohl's political fate was almost sealed at the CDU party conference in September 1989. Although his health was not good, he just managed to ward off a "coup" by prominent party colleagues. Shortly beforehand, he had received information that Hungary was about to open its borders to thousands of East German refugees. The coup had failed, and a new political opportunity presented itself.
Image: picture alliance/Martin Athenstädt
'If the historical hour allows …'
On December 19, 1989, the German question was still undecided. Kohl was in Dresden. Rumors were rife. He planned to make a speech outside the Frauenkirche. Would he say what so many were longing to hear? He hesitated, before finally stating that the goal was "the unity of our German nation." In an emotional atmosphere, before thousands of people, his was a measured speech that avoided extremes.
Image: imago/Sven Simon
The signature cardigan
Between July 14 and 16, 1990, the die was finally cast in favor of German unity - outward unity, at least. Kohl and his foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, were in Moscow and the Caucasus, Gorbachev's home. They were discussing the question of a unified Germany's membership of NATO - to which Gorbachev agreed. It was the last, and biggest, political hurdle on the path to unification.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Man of action
Helmut Kohl never lacked the ability to assert himself. Nicknamed "the black giant" on account of his height (1.93 meters, 6'4") and political orientation, he had no problems defending himself. When demonstrators in Halle pelted him with eggs on May 10, 1991, his bodyguards had difficulty restraining him - Kohl waded into the crowd to confront them himself.
Image: dpa
The Europeanization of Germany
For Helmut Kohl, Europe was not just a policy field: It was the issue dearest to his heart. German unification had been negotiated but not yet formally declared when, on a visit to Bonn, the EU Commission President Jacques Delors presented Kohl with a map of Europe – with all of unified Germany as a member state.
Image: Picture alliance/O. Berg
Family life
In 2001, after years of illness, Kohl's wife Hannelore took her own life. After her death, the family fell apart. A part of the reason was that Kohl the politician left little room for Kohl the private man. "I do not exaggerate when I say that my father's public office could be felt in even the farthest reaches of his private life," his son Walter wrote in "Leben oder gelebt werden."
Image: imago/photo2000
Maike Richter-Kohl
The second woman at Kohl's side - who he married in 2008 - remains a controversial figure. The 53-year-old economist has been accused of trying to claim sole prerogative of interpretation regarding Kohl's life, and of being behind the rift between Kohl and his two sons. "She cares for, protects and controls him," the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote in 2012.
Image: dapd
Kohl's most important personnel decision
If a person made a positive impression on him, Kohl remembered them. Angela Merkel drew his attention early in her career, and, as "Kohl's girl," enjoyed his protection for years. But when Kohl refused to reveal the origin of millions of marks paid into a CDU slush fund, the two became estranged. Kohl's last will and testament precluded Merkel making a speech at any official German state ceremony.
Image: imago/S. Simon
Bowing in 'gratitude and humility'
The ceremony in Strasbourg was not, however, a German state one - it was a "European" ceremony. Kohl's political comrades came from all over the world to take their leave of the chancellor of national and European unity. And German Chancellor Angela Merkel also spoke, saying: "Thank you for the opportunity that we, as Germans and Europeans, received through you."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Euler
Final resting place
Helmut Kohl's final resting place is in the cemetery of the Speyer Cathedral. He chose to be buried here instead of with his late wife, Hannelore, in the family grave in Ludwigshafen. This decision, as well as the family quarrel before the commemoration ceremony, may become part of how Kohl is remembered in years to come.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa-Pool/M. Murat
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Schwan said their working relationship broke down after Kohl remarried, and Maike Kohl-Richter took greater control of her new husband's affairs.
The writer went on to publish "Vermächtnis" with co-author Tilman Jens in 2014 using the material he had recorded.
That book contained numerous, sometimes negative, statements that the former chancellor is said to have made about other politicians, including his eventual successor, Angela Merkel.
After the book was published, an already severely ailing Kohl and his wife went to court and demanded that the controversial passages not be distributed.
The court already banned other passages from the book in a previous ruling.
After Kohl died in 2017, his widow Maike Kohl-Richter continued the legal dispute.
Kohl, in office from 1982 to 1998, is widely considered to be one of the most important chancellors in German history, mainly due to his contribution to German reunification and helping lay the foundations of the single European currency.
rc/msh (AFP dpa)
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