Helmut Kohl

It was September 1989 when CDU rebels around Heiner Geissler and Norbert Blüm plotted to overthrow their party leader: Helmut Kohl had plummeted in all polls, seen as stubborn, unlucky, a transitional chancellor. Then the wall fell. The rest is history: Kohl became known to Germans as the "Chancellor of Unity." Longtime "Spiegel" political editors Hans-Joachim Noack and Wolfram Bickerich describe the phenomenon of this exceptional politician: they illuminate the long rise from the youngest Minister-President of Germany to CDU party chairman and chancellor. They analyze the Kohl system, which reduced the party to a chancellor election club, and depict the sudden downfall of the former chancellor after the party donation scandal. The authors equally address his achievements and successes as well as his political mistakes and personal defeats. And of course, they explore what motivated the man Kohl at his core. This empathetic portrait of the passionate politician and statesman Helmut Kohl is also a captivating journey through eight decades of German history.