Word: kohl
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...Kohl confronted his nation's continued anguish in a speech prepared for delivery Sunday at Bergen-Belsen, where he had long planned to make his first official V-E day observance. "Bergen-Belsen, a place in the center of Germany," he said, "remains the mark of Cain burned into the memory of our people . . . the site of a deluded will to destruction." Kohl recalled that the Nazis' "totalitarian regime was directed mainly against the Jews . . . The decisive question is why so many people remained indifferent . . . even if Auschwitz was beyond the power of human comprehension, the unscrupulous brutality...
Sometime during his ten-day visit, Reagan will surely have kind words to say about the West European allies' resolve in deploying the new Euromissiles. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Belgian Prime Minister Wilfried Martens, Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher have all accepted the NATO weapons on their soil, despite heavy pressure from the peace movement. Allied solidarity has been further strengthened by the near unanimous Western rejection of Gorbachev's recent offer to "freeze" the missile balance in Europe at current levels, which greatly favor the Soviet Union...
...Kohl's initiatives have, for the most part, produced less than glowing results. In Western Europe, the French, who otherwise have forged a close and cooperative relationship with their former enemy, have occasionally bridled at Bonn's assertiveness in economic matters. In the East, during the Euromissile debate, Moscow rolled out accusations of West German "revanchism," a reference to Nazi territorial ambitions of old. Kohl's attempts at burnishing national symbols have also met with limited success: West Germans still do less anthem singing and flag flying than their neighbors. Says Hans Mayer, professor emeritus of literature at Tübingen...
...sense of optimism along what is now known as the inner German border has been blunted in the chilly superpower climate of the '80s, and no one knows the disappointments of the times better than Chancellor Kohl, 55. Only 15 years old when the war ended, Kohl has described himself as "the first Chancellor of the postwar generation," meaning the 60% of West Germans who on V-E day were either children or not yet born. Kohl came to office determined to play a role abroad commensurate with his country's flourishing democracy, strong support for NATO, and eminence...
When President Reagan and Chancellor Kohl of West Germany first discussed the idea, it seemed like a good one: a V-E day visit by the President to a cemetery in Germany where American and German soldiers lie side by side. It would be a ceremony of friendship and reconciliation...