Helmut Kohl: The German Chancellor Who Wished for Too Much (2017)
politico.com
politico.com
While I'm no fan of his, this is actually one thing where I have to defend him.
The best book on Kohl (and contemporary German politics) is Heribert Schwan's "Kohl Protokolle". Put aside, the ridiculous law suit Kohl waged against its release (ultimately winning - I'm a lucky owner of the uncensored version) and his former ghostwriter Schwan, as well as all the negative stuff in it about Kohl and politics in general - one thing even Schwan notes in it, is the continuously biased portrait of Kohl by German media (which Schwan was a part of, working for Der Spiegel).
In the book, Schwan (a journalist; himself openly left-leaning before, during and after being Kohls's ghostwriter) paints a picture of the grotesqueness of the lengths German journalists went in making Kohl look like a buffoon (often using Kohl's rural upbringings) while simultaneously exalting his left-leaning predecessor Schmidt (the highly cultured urbanite).
Much of this bias resembles to me the favouritism amongst journalism today. Even to the point where when journalists claim that "everything used to be more civil (oh, the polarizing!) but <insert-your-most-hated-conservative-here> discrediting journalism is really breaking ground for new lows" is itself prove of the bias (since the media bias clearly existed at least in Germany throughout the 1970s and 1980s already).
As the linked article already mentioned, Schmidt died 2015 beloved by most Germans ("best chancellor ever") while Kohl died 2017 more or less shunned.
There could have been a significant startup or two in Germany. Kohl has destroyed that opportunity, much like he has destroyed opportunities in East Germany.
>He was determined to transform the territories of former East Germany into “a garden of beautiful flowers,”
>[but]
>his commitment of literally trillions in Deutsche marks to build highways and shopping centers—rather than firming up the industrial base—led to stagnation and a 10-year recession in all of
[1] https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Missing-Link-Der-Kam... (in German)
With such an internet, smartphones would have been adopted much earlier. The digitalization would have started much earlier. Consumers would have poured money into phones much earlier. We are living at least 5-10 years in the past because of that decision.
Whatever was paid with that donation, I don't think it's worse than killing an early adoption of the internet.
Regarding your point about populism and lack of political platform: apparently conservatives back then embraced at least right wing populism and only as everyone tried to become more centrist, the new generation of populists became relevant.
Please note that I am not commenting on the politcal achievements or failings of Kohl, just at the fact that this photo does him a disservice.
I found a startling continuity in electoral platforms of Kohl-Chirac-Sarco. They had one thing in common: they did not really had anything constituing a political platform. They all had slight populist tones in their campaigns, well every politician have these, but what was more important to note is that they really had nothing else besides very weak, generic, politically-amorphous "we will spend more on this, less on that la la la."
Basically, their message to the electorate was nothing more than their smiling faces on billboards, and a promise of "more free bacon after you elect me"
And this promise of "free bacon" was only getting more and more accepted.
And with time, Western political cultures degenerated to a point where anything, but a discourse of "what kind of free bacon you want this time" became irrelevant.
The moment this happened, the clique I call "ultrapopulists" rushed on to the forefront. I think that was well expected: if all buyers in a beer shop are pathologic alcoholics, it makes sense to just to sell the strongest, cheapest, unrefined booze you have. In other words: alcoholics do not come to a liquor store for a craft beer. And the same phenomenon is now happening in Western politics
None of those types made me feel that they have that "we are going there"
Nowadays politicians have very generic "liberal," "democratic," "socialist" action plans they give to the public, but you never sense that there is any "prevailing idea" or strategy formulation behind them. All of them can easily come out of random number generator.
On the article, the be fair, neither Kohl, Schröder, nor Merkel managed to fix the mess caused by the re-unification. Kohl, alongside Mitterand had the right feel and ambition for the EU that I'm so happy to live in. But, the problem with Kohl, Merkel and many other leaders, is not the scandals about illegal contributions (the CDU did this since it's founding). They miss the point to step back, some even fail to build up candidates for their succession. Looking back at Great Britain when Churchill lost the General Election right after the war, that's probably the best thing that could have happened to them and I wish the 1990 Bundestagswahl would have ended with the same message: "Thank you for your service, let's see what the other guys can do".
PS: Whenever someone claims Germany's current government will fall due to #mersee I just laugh: There's no alternative to Bundeskanzlerin Merkel in sight and if the stubborn bavarians finally just the opposition (where they have been mentally for the last years) the Green Party will replace them and business will continue as usual.
... and this was frequently used in photos. Just Google for "Kohl Honecker" or "Kohl Putin" and you'll see what I mean.
Here is a much better picture of him in the later days:
Helmut Kohl with two of his friends:
https://www.bz-berlin.de/artikel-archiv/welcher-berliner-erk...
A classic picture:
https://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Artikel/2014_Deuts...
George H. Bush about Helmut Kohl:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnysQpIlP2g
What a contrast to today.
I believe the real Quote used was "blühende Landschaften", which is more like 'blooming landscapes'. I wonder why they picked a translation that seems so different.
http://www.spreeblick.com/blog/2007/05/04/die-erfinder-von-h...
It shows his background to old Nazis and how they played a role in his political upbringing. Googling for some of the names is also interesting, something, that the German mainstream media never really brought into the public discussion.