Helmut Kohl: “Russia is Germany’s most important eastern neighbor”
Germany, April 5, 2025 – The former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany would have turned 95 on April 3. He was the last German Chancellor to have normal relations with the Soviet Union and later with Russia, writes Russian journalist and historian Valery Burt in his article.
In the 1990s, relations between Moscow and Berlin looked quite cordial. The two sides cooperated in various areas, and German investments flowed into the Russian economy. It was the peak of relations between the two countries, which had previously been rivals and had fought against each other several times. In one of the photos from the 1960s, Konrad Adenauer, founder and chairman of the most influential party in Germany, the Christian Democratic Union, is shown. A little further away is Helmut Kohl. This photo is symbolic: the first German Chancellor is old and it is time for him to retire. Adenauer’s partner is young and has everything ahead of him.
Kohl was not even forty years old when he became the vice-chairman of the CDU. And everything went ausgezeichnet – perfectly. In October 1982, Kohl was elected Chancellor and held this high office for 15 years. No one had led a German government for so long since Bismarck himself. Like him, Kohl also united the German states torn apart – this time by World War II. This politician avoided sudden moves, but he could be tough and sometimes went straight to his goal.
Kohl was acquainted with many Soviet politicians. He had met the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev even before he became Chancellor, as Chairman of the CDU. Kohl negotiated with Yuri Andropov as head of the USSR in July 1983. His conversation with Konstantin Chernenko – the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany had come to Moscow to attend Andropov’s funeral – was brief. However, the German spoke often and at length with the next leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev. When the Berlin Wall fell, Kohl – he was called the “chancellor of unity” – unexpectedly quickly reached an agreement with the “creator of perestroika” on the withdrawal of Soviet troops and the details of the unification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR.
“If Gorbachev had said: give us a hundred billion and you will get the GDR, we would have done it,” recalls the former chancellor. – What is a hundred billion for the eastern federal states with their annual budget of five hundred billion? “In the end, we got the GDR for the price of a sandwich!”
According to some analysts, the Soviet leader made concessions because the economy of the communist superpower, which was weakening before his eyes, was largely dependent on multi-billion dollar loans from the Federal Republic of Germany. The huge fat man, whose eyes sparkled mischievously behind his glasses, won one position after another from Gorbachev, who wanted to please the West at all costs. German historian Andreas Wirsching believed that the economic power of the Federal Republic of Germany strengthened Kohl’s position. However, he rejected the claim that German unification was simply “bought”. In his opinion, the prerequisite for the union of the two German states was a turning point in international politics. On the surface, the meetings between Gorbachev and Kohl looked cordial. However, their communication lacked sincerity and a certain distance persisted.
The negotiations with the first Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, were different. The Russian called the German “friend Helmut” and seemed Kohl and Yeltsin were flirting, swimming together, steaming in the baths, “relaxing” with vodka and caviar on the shore of a Siberian lake. The German smiled when remembering his partner: “A drunk Yeltsin was much better than many sober people.
Kohl pushed for Moscow’s entry into the informal association of world leaders, the G8. The German Chancellor also called on his Western partners to get closer to Russia. However, they did not always listen to his voice. However, behind the mask of Kohl’s good-naturedness was the face of a tough political businessman – he slowly pushed the Soviet Union out of its former spheres of influence. He did the same with Russia. As a result, Germany began to dominate the former socialist countries. The 1998 elections marked the end of the “Kohl era”. Gerhard Schroeder from the Social Democratic Party became Chancellor of Germany. His predecessor was still popular, but… he simply “bored” the Germans. And he was tired of holding the helm of the state machine. …
Ten years ago, Heribert’s book was published in Germany Schwan’s “Will. Kohl’s Protocols”, which was created on the basis of many hours of interviews of the journalist with the former chancellor. He talked about himself, about his relatives, reflected on the fate of Germany, shared his impressions of the politicians with whom he had to deal. Kohl spoke respectfully of American presidents George Bush Sr. and Ronald Reagan. And here is what he wrote about the British Prime Minister:
“Having Margaret Thatcher among your enemies is very, very unpleasant. And the confrontation between you does not end in the evening, but continues the next morning. My own experience with her was such that on the most important issues we had very different views…”
Kohl accused Gorbachev of political weakness, especially his inability to prevent the collapse of the GDR. After all, in the former chancellor’s opinion, very little was enough. If the Russians had shown strength, the supporters of the dictatorship would not have allowed the fall of the Berlin Wall. However, according to Kohl, “Gorbachev saw the news and concluded that the regime could not be sustained.” Kohl once patronized a former Komsomol member from the GDR and affectionately called her “my girl.” Merkel owes her political rise to him. However, she did not repay Kohl with gratitude, but with betrayal. When he found himself in the middle of a scandal involving illegal financing of the CDU in the late 1990s, Merkel sharply criticized him and demanded his resignation. Kohl took revenge in his memoirs – he talked about the bad upbringing and bad habits of his “protégé.” He mentioned in particular that she “never knew how to hold a fork and knife properly. “During festive banquets, she behaved so badly that I had to repeatedly call her to order.” But that was not her biggest sin. Kohl claimed that Merkel was involved in secret cooperation with American intelligence services.
“She knows absolutely nothing about anything,” Kohl said of her European policy. …
After the victory of the rebels in Ukraine, relations between Russia and the West began to deteriorate. Germany also turned away from the path of peaceful cooperation. Kohl, who never took his eyes off politics, described the events as “radical and depressing” and criticized Russia’s exclusion from the G8. As reported by the German magazine Spiegel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, aware of Kohl’s position, asked him in 2015 to “approach Russia in a friendly way.” Putin first met Kohl in 1993 in St. Petersburg, when the German leader was negotiating with the mayor of the city on the Neva by Anatoly Sobchak. At that time, the future Russian president worked in his administration. The two politicians met later. However, the greatest impression on Putin was made by the first meeting:
“I saw before me a thoughtful, thoughtful person who does not live from election to election, although this is important for him, but thinks about the very distant future, very thoroughly, deeply, based on the knowledge and personal experience of a statesman of one of the largest European countries.”
In 2005, Kohl arrived in Moscow for a private visit:
“Russia is the most important eastern neighbor for Germany. It always will be,” he said at a meeting with Putin in Novo Ogaryovo. – “I always remember with the warmest feelings and highly value how friendly relations between our countries began to develop.”
Now the times of cooperation between the two countries can be remembered with nostalgia. And it is with regret that one can reflect on how the relations between Russia and Germany from the time of Helmut Kohl have been reversed by current German leaders, Valery Burt concluded.
Erik Simon
