Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand
federal elections. solidated his hold on power by overwhelmingly winning the 1983 by the Bundestag (German parliament), and a year later, he con- instigated by theCDU.Kohlwasconsequently electedChancellor In 1982,therulinggovernment fell toavoteofnoconfidence Chancellorship ofWest Germany. and aschairmanoftheCDU,hetookfirststepstoward the ing himtheyoungestelectedheadofgovernment inGermany), After servingasminister-presidentofRhinelandPalatinate (mak- and rosequicklythroughtheranksoflocalregionalpolitics. hometown’s branchoftheChristianDemocraticUnion(CDU)party, and eventually politics. In 1959 he was elected leader of his He began his working life in academia, later moving into business science atHeidelbergUniversity. studied law in Frankfurt before switching to history and political he hadbeensparedtheworstofwarduetohisyoungage.He mid-teens astheSecondWorld War ended,andheoftensaidthat Born inLudwigshafen, Germanyin1930,HelmutKohlreachedhis Helmut Kohl François Mitterrand 1916-1996 Helmut Kohl1930-2017 leaders inreconciliation Helmut KohlandFrançois Mitterrand:
@ AP, 1984 of thesecondhalf20 It wasperhapsunlikely thattwo ofEurope’s greatestleaders and moving imagethatmadeinternationalheadlines. anniversary ofthestartFirst World War isaniconic hands ataceremony on 22September 1984 to mark the 70 of Europeanintegration.Thesightthetwo leadersholding the importance of peace between their nations in the pursuit relationship between France andGermany, andunderscored Kohl andMitterrandworked hardtobolsterthepost-war era whentheirnationsfought two cataclysmic wars. President François Mitterrandwere bornandgrewupinan together. GermanChancellorHelmutKohlandFrench EU Pioneers united Europeclosertoreality. flict hadsplitthecountryintwo,andbringingKohl’s visionofa both parliaments in1990, reunifying Germany45yearsaftercon- of EastandWest Germany. Atreatywassignedandratifiedby of theBerlinWall hewassteadfastinpursuingthereunification state ofEastGermanyinadiplomaticcapacity, andafterthefall German state.HewasthefirstChancellortoreceiveheadof Kohl isperhapsbestrememberedfor hiscommitmenttoasingle ing toLondon avoidarrestby theregime. oners-of-war andFrench armedresistancegroups before escap- to theFrench resistance.Hebuiltupanetwork withotherpris- France’s Vichy regimebefore pivotingtotheleft andcommitting prisoner-of-war. After his escape, he worked for a time under front lines,and was capturedin1940andheldasaGerman On theoutbreakofSecondWorld War Hewasdraftedtothe lished hispoliticalrootsontheFrench nationalistright. studied PublicLawandreceivedhisdegreein1937,estab- François MitterrandwasborninCharente, France in1916.He François Mitterrand th centuryshouldwork soclosely th
EN Mitterrand met Charles de Gaulle, considered the figurehead of The famous photograph of Kohl and Mitterrand near Verdun, the the resistance in exile, in an attempt to cooperate on the French site of one of the longest battles of the First World War, was resistance, though they did not see eye-to-eye. taken on 22 September 1984, in a remembrance ceremony which showed how far the France, Germany, and Europe had After the war, Mitterand cemented his position on the left by come since the two World Wars. opposing Charles de Gaulle, eventually becoming leader of France’s Socialist Party. Following a failed first attempt at run- Holding hands in front of a memorial wreath at the Douaumont ning for the Presidency, he was elected President in 1981, lead- ossuary, Kohl and Mitterrand helped make Verdun not just a ing the country’s first left-wing government in 23 years. painful memory, but also a symbol of peace and reconciliation, demonstrating to Europe and the world the importance and Committed to a unified Europe power of peace on the continent.
Helmut Kohl was the second of only three people to have They developed a close friendship as well as a fruitful working received an Honorary Citizenship of Europe from the European relationship over the years, and famously joked with each other. Council, in recognition of his extraordinary work on European Kohl once presented Mitterrand with a typical German dish of integration and cooperation, such was his contribution to the Saumagen (sow’s stomach), and reportedly told him to ‘eat up, European project. or you’re getting the Saarland back’.
In recognition of their life’s work on Franco-German relations, they jointly received the Charlemagne prize in 1988, which is awarded for work towards European unification. In his accept- ance speech, Kohl emphasised the things that France and Ger- many had in common, and that acted as a basis for the entire EU project, starting with the European Coal and Steel Commu- nity in 1951. Several of their peers, including Konrad Adenauer and Simone Veil, have also won this prize.
Kohl was Chancellor for 16 years, the longest-serving in the 20th century. Mitterrand served as President of the French Republic for 14 years, the longest presidency in France’s history.
© Bundesarchiv / Schaack, Lothar Later years Mitterrand and Kohl in 1987 Having privately battled with prostate cancer for several years, While President, Mitterrand supported European enlargement by François Mitterrand succumbed less than a year after his depar- encouraging Spain and Portugal’s accession to the EU. He also ture from office, in January 1996. His friend Helmut Kohl died of believed in a more integrated EU and championed the passing natural causes in June 2017. A European ‘act of state’ in his of the Single European Act in 1986, which laid the first legal honour, the very first of its kind, was held at the European Par- foundations for a European single market. Together, Kohl and liament in Strasbourg one month later. Here, Commission Presi- Mitterrand completed this goal with the passing of the Maas- dent Jean-Claude Juncker paid tribute: ‘Helmut Kohl was a tricht Treaty six years later, making their dream of a seamless German and a European patriot, because for him there was no transnational market a reality. contradiction between the two. For him, German and European unity went together’.
EU Pioneers