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16 June 2017

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl dead at 87

Kohl oversaw German reunification. 

By Julia Rampen

Helmut Kohl, the former German Chancellor who oversaw the reunification of Germany, has died aged 87.

Kohl, described by US President George HW Bush as “the greatest European leader of the second half of the 20th century”, was Chancellor of West Germany during the 1980s and won by a landslide in the first all-German elections of 1990s.

He belonged to the centre-right Christian Democratic Union, the same party to which the current Chancellor, Angela Merkel belongs. 

Merkel was initially viewed as a Kohl protege, but later turned on him. 

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