Around five years ago (this June), former Chancellor Kohl passed on. If you were from this era of 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.....you respected the guy and his accomplishments. However, there's this tainted part of the Kohl history, and it's standing in the way of his legacy.
There are three elements to this story.
First, around 1999....a scandal brewed up....involving financial donations (from non-German folks) to the CDU Party.
To be blunt.....no one has ever suggested that Kohl got rich, or even spent a pfennig of the funding. What is generally known....money came into the CDU Party....got pushed to a non-German account (outside the country), and Kohl arranged for the funding to be spent on lesser CDU candidates. You might have a guy in the Pfalz who showed some talents, and just needed some campaign money to carry out a four-star effort.....so Kohl dispersed the money in that fashion.
Folks argue over this....that it's not the kind of scandal that you'd see in the US....where people enriched themselves. But if you call a scandal based on hidden information....well....it fits.
Second, this scandal led to Kohl being stamped by the CDU Party as a 'problem'. As he left....the inner circle of people who knew of the funds....also got pushed into the 'problem' category.
What was left? A clean-up operation, with Merkel as the head of this new organization.
While the SPD sits there with all kinds of 'remember-Brandt' or 'remember-Smidt' statues....the CDU was led down a path to just forget Kohl. You could make the case today....twenty years later, that the CDU is fractured as a party, with pro-Kohl and pro-Merkel people not able to really get along or cooperate.
Third, there's the second-wife problem that Kohl has.
The original wife (Hannelore) came to have a health condition (Photodermatitis), and between this this.....depression, and the initial chatter of the scandal....she ended up committing suicide in 2001.
Kohl would end up marrying his second wife (Maike) around seven years later. She was 34 years younger than Kohl. A lot of criticism erupted out of this episode....with his sons, former associates, and news media saying that Kohl was 'forced' into this marriage.
So upon Kohl's death....a couple of interesting things happened.
The funeral was attempted to be run as a controlled event by Maike. She attempted to forbid Chancellor Merkel from speaking at the funeral.
The private papers of Kohl? Well...the German Federal Achieves tried to take possession and Maike said 'no'.
Burial site? The Cathedral Chapter Cemetery (the Domkapitelfriedhof in Speyer in case you were looking)....which happens to be next to the Konrad Adenauer Park.
I bring all of this up because this week.....the bronze bust of Kohl was finally finished. The city came to the widow and said it's time to go onto the next phase.....to remove the fencing and security camera set-up. The widow's reaction? 'No'.
The fencing and security camera were there to prevent vandalism.....at least the threat was stated by the widow in this case. The city doesn't want to continue the current action.
The bust to signify the end-chapter to the Kohl episode? I'm not that sure about that. Oddly, the security camera and fencing deal now becomes the end-chapter.
Location of the burial site? If you arrive by train at the Speyer station....it's about a five-minute walk....SW from the front of the station. Oddly enough, if you were ranking the top ten things in Speyer to see/do.....a stop by the Kohl graveside doesn't rank much. In some odd way....he's the 'forgotten' Chancellor.
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