Helmut Kohl

V

Reunification

This allegedly unremarkable era came to a dramatic end when the Berlin Wall separating democratic West Germany from the Communist German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) was toppled in November 1989. While Kohl had little to do with this historic event, his political fortunes certainly benefited from his skill at taking advantage of it.

The chancellor had long thought that German reunification would be desirable, although unlikely, given that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) strongly supported Communist East Germany. In 1985, however, the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev became president of the USSR. After some initial skepticism, Kohl and other Western leaders had high hopes that he would encourage political and economic changes within the GDR that might ease relations between East and West.

Despite these hopes, nearly everyone was surprised by the dramatic events of 1989. When the USSR relaxed its tight control over the GDR, the East German government began to totter, and the Berlin Wall was mobbed by East German citizens seeking to visit the West. In fact Kohl was out of the country when the Berlin Wall came down; he was in Poland on a foreign relations visit.

With the opening of the Berlin Wall, Kohl and West Germany faced an entirely new set of challenges. While the chancellor encouraged movement toward democracy in the East and quietly supported the concept of German reunification, he did not want to press too hard or too openly for reunification for fear of provoking a Soviet-backed crackdown in East Germany. Additionally, Kohl was concerned about a potential torrent of eastern refugees that might flood into West Germany. Kohl was also under pressure from European neighbors who were uneasy about an enlarged Germany.

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In response, the chancellor sought to enact a long-term plan to first reform the economic and political infrastructure of the East, and then reunify the nation. This plan included promises to keep a unified Germany in NATO, to keep seeking European consensus throughout the reunification process, and to press the new regime in the GDR in the direction of democracy.

However, the changes came much faster than Kohl had anticipated. When Kohl visited an East German city in December 1989, he was shocked to be greeted by cheering throngs who chanted his name. These demonstrations convinced him that the nation's desire to end more than four decades of division were too forceful to delay. By the early months of 1990, Kohl had voiced support for pro-reunification groups in East Germany, including an East German branch of the CDU that, although long a tool of the regime, had removed its Communist leaders after the wall came down. Kohl also pushed through a plan allowing East Germans to exchange their nearly worthless money for the far stronger West German deutsche mark, a move that was intended to stem economic collapse in the East and prevent a mass immigration to the West.

Kohl demonstrated sharp political and foreign relations skills in helping bring about a peaceful reunification in 1990. Supported by U.S. president George Bush, Kohl visited Moscow in February, where he won Gorbachev's acceptance of the idea of ending Germany's division. The chancellor also campaigned actively for his CDU allies in the GDR's first free election in March, helping the party to a surprising victory. The election of a friendly government in East Germany helped pave the way for a May treaty on economic and currency union between the two Germanys. In the treaty the West German government agreed to continue to subsidize the East German economy.

In order to soften Soviet insistence that a united Germany remaining in NATO would pose a threat to the USSR, Kohl approved large-scale financial aid for Soviet economic reforms. In June the chancellor agreed to ban NATO troops and weapons from eastern Germany after unification and offered a pledge to limit the size of a united German army. These concessions were not lost on the Soviet president—during a July visit by the chancellor, Gorbachev agreed that a united Germany could remain in NATO.

This breakthrough accelerated negotiations on a final settlement to restore a fully sovereign, united Germany. The Two Plus Four talks, which had begun in May between the Federal Republic, the GDR, and the four countries that had occupied Germany at the end of World War II (the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, and France), were concluded in September in favor of reunification. At the same time, Kohl's government worked out another treaty with the GDR, extending most West German laws to East Germany and making Berlin the future capital of the united country. Both agreements were approved in September.

The long-awaited reunification finally came on October 3, 1990. Kohl, no longer merely a leader in ordinary times, greeted joyous crowds at a midnight ceremony in Berlin. This triumph was much more than a public-relations coup—the resultant wave of popularity carried Kohl’s coalition to victory in the reunited country’s first nationwide elections, which were held in December 1990. Kohl became the first chancellor of a unified Germany since the end of World War II.

VI

The 1990s

Soon after his greatest triumph, Kohl was faced with some of the toughest challenges of his tenure. Eastern Germany's old-fashioned industries, unable to compete in a single capitalist economy, collapsed. Facing massive unemployment in the east, the German government had to transfer tens of billions of dollars to prop up the region. This unexpected spending, along with a global recession, threw Germany into its worst economic slump since the end of World War II. In 1993 Kohl helped work out a compromise among all parties in the government to raise more aid for eastern Germany, funded by future tax hikes. The compromise forced Kohl to abandon an earlier pledge that reunification would be completed without increased taxation.

Kohl also had difficulty trying to manage the social repercussions of reunification and economic hardship. German society was strained by massive unemployment, widespread resentment against immigrants, and an upsurge of neo-Nazi violence. In response Kohl criticized radical right-wing attacks on foreigners, while at the same time he sought tighter laws on political asylum to stop the costly and unpopular influx of refugees.

The new fiscal and immigration measures were passed—amid substantial opposition—and Kohl's coalition was able to retain a thin majority in the 1994 national elections. Some observers thought that the victory would not have been possible without the help of a timely economic recovery that year.

Throughout the 1990s Kohl sought to broaden Germany's foreign policy role. Cautiously redefining old constitutional and political limits on sending troops outside Europe, the government permitted some involvement in international peacekeeping. Lightly armed units took part in United Nations (UN) operations in Somalia and NATO missions in the Balkan Peninsula.

However, Kohl's key foreign policy goals focused on European integration and the European Union (EU), an organization designed to increase economic ties and cooperation among European countries. In 1991 he played an important role in the development of the so-called Maastricht Treaty, which created the EU and included controversial provisions for a future common European currency. In 1992 and 1993 Kohl pushed for ratification of the treaty in Germany, despite wariness abroad about German domination of this new Europe. There was also opposition at home to abandoning the deutsche mark in favor of a new European currency. Throughout such challenges, Kohl remained a leading advocate of European political and economic integration. His lobbying helped assure passage of the treaty in Germany. He also paved the way for expanding the European Union to include Scandinavian countries and Austria. Kohl advocated opening NATO and, once economic conditions allowed, the EU to certain former Communist countries.

As the 1998 elections approached, Kohl's agenda was dominated by the interrelated issues of the economy and European unity. At home an economic slump resumed as unemployment hit record highs. Prodded by the FDP, one of the CDU’s coalition partners, Kohl endorsed new steps to trim Germany's social welfare system. He voiced cautious support for cutting public spending, workers' benefits, and taxes. Kohl argued that these measures would help Germany retain its economic power. It would also help Germany meet the economic criteria necessary to qualify for participation in the EU’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), which called for the introduction of a single European currency in 1999. Such changes faced resistance from defenders of the welfare system in his own party, from large labor union demonstrations, and from opponents of a unified European currency.

In the end, the opposition proved insurmountable for Kohl. In elections in September 1998 the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Gerhard Schröder, in alliance with the ecological Green Party, defeated Kohl’s ruling coalition. The CDU/CSU lost 49 seats in the 669-seat lower house of parliament, to finish with 245. The SDP gained 46 seats, to finish with 298, and the Green Party garnered 47. As the head of the CDU, Kohl took responsibility for the defeat and resigned as party leader, although loyal party members immediately voted to name him honorary chairman.

Kohl’s problems continued in late 1999 and early 2000 as a scandal involving millions of dollars in illegal funds rocked the CDU. At the center of the scandal was Kohl’s admittance that he had accepted almost $1 million in secret campaign contributions between 1993 and 1998. Kohl refused to identify the donors, violating German election laws. As the investigation widened, many called for Kohl to be expelled from the CDU, and in January 2000 he was forced to resign his post as honorary chairman of the party. In February 2001 prosecutors agreed to drop a criminal investigation into Kohl's fundraising practices in exchange for Kohl's payment of a fine.

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