The EastWest Institute would like to acknowledge the passing of Dr. Helmut Kohl, Germany's ex-Chancellor and architect of the country’s reunification.

Mr. Kohl died on June 16 at the age of 87. 
 
“It is with deep sadness that we hear of the passing of Dr. Kohl,” commented Ambassador Cameron Munter, CEO & President of the EastWest Institute. “Dr. Kohl was a true statesman and visionary, championing the institutions of democracy in his homeland and for all of Europe. He will be sorely missed, but his pioneering work and influence will continue to leave an indelible mark on world affairs.” 
 
Dr. Kohl was awarded the EastWest Institute’s “Statesman of the Decade” Award in 1999 for his tireless work in leading post-war Europe and bringing East and West Germany together after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the same year he was confirmed, along with former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, as EastWest Institute Honorary Co-Chairmen.
 
A politician for most of his adult life, Dr. Kohl was chancellor of then West Germany between 1982 and 1990, and the reunified Germany between 1990 and 1998. His tenure as head of the center-right Christian Democratic Union Party for a 16 year period was the longest of any German Chancellor since Otto von Bismarck.

Kohl, Margaret Thatcher and EWI's founder John Edwin Mroz