Word: kohl
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Ever since, Kohl's guiding principle has been to preserve and enlarge his own personal power. Competitors within his own party, such as Kurt Biedenkopf, former General Secretary Heiner Geissler, and the President of the Bundestag Rita Sussmuth were either demoted or "promoted" to figurehead positions. Now, his Christian Democrats are in the lamentable state of lacking any leadership figure besides Kohl...
...foreign policy has been embarassing to those Germans who believe that all of Germany's past, and in particular the Third Reich, must be remembered when trying to master the present. Kohl believes that absolution can be achieved simply by claiming die Gnade der spaten Geburt (literally, the grace of late birth, referring to the fact that he was only...
Once again the contrast to von Weizsacker could hardly be more striking. While von Weizsacker spoke of the need to confront the past at the 40th anniversary of V-E Day in 1985, Kohl celebrated German-American friendship with Ronald Reagan at Bitburg over the graves of SS soldiers. In light of Kohl's view of history, this incident and others--such as his comparison of Gorbachev to Hitler's propaganda minister--cannot be excused as isolated judgment errors...
...KOHL'S self-proclaimed desire to enter history as one of Germany's greatest chancellors has guided his policy towards East Germany. Ever since the wall crumbled in November, Kohl has been pushing for reunification at breakneck speed in order to ensure that he will be in charge of the reunited Germany. The Economist has aptly described unification as "Kohl's Anschluss" and the unified Germany as "Kohl's Kingdom," a pawn for his personal aggrandizement...
...elections in East Germany on March 18 are a case in point. Kohl pressured three East German parties to join forces by forming the "Alliance for Germany," which, incidentally, was proclaimed in Bonn rather than in East Berlin. At campaign rallies in East Germany, he let himself be announced as the "Chancellor of the German Fatherland." Subsequently, he declared openly that the flow of West German aid to East Germany was conditional on the outcome of East German elections...