Helmut Kohl was the longest-serving German chancellor since Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898). Kohl was the leader who presided over German reunification at the end of the Cold War and was also instrumental in the transformation of the European Community into the European Union. Kohl was born in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany. As a college student, he joined the Christian Democratic Union (Christlich Demokratische Union, CDU). In 1958, he received a doctorate in politics from the University of Heidelberg. Kohl was elected chair of the local CDU, a position he held until 1969. Meanwhile, in 1960, he was elected to the city council of Ludwigshafen. Three years later, he became a deputy in the state legislature. In 1969, Kohl was chosen as the deputy for the national CDU, and four years later, he became chairman of the national party.

Although the CDU did well in successive elections at the national level, the party was unable to win an outright majority, and a series of coalition governments initially kept Kohl from becoming chancellor. Following a vote of no confidence in 1982, however, Kohl became chancellor of a new coalition government. He arranged for new elections in an effort to gain a majority. In the subsequent balloting in 1983, Kohl and the CDU won 48.8 percent of the vote, while their coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP) received 7 percent.

Kohl worked to improve Franco-German relations and developed a close relationship with French president Francois Mitterrand. He was also a staunch supporter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and approved a controversial plan to station intermediate-range ballistic missiles in West Germany. The CDU-FDPcoalition won the 1987 elections, and Kohl remained chancellor.

In 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down and the borders between East and West Germany largely opened. In 1990, in the waning days of the Cold War, Kohl met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and secured a pledge that Moscow would not oppose German reunification. Kohl finalized an agreement with the leaders of East Germany for economic and political union. The plan called for a single currency and the conversion of wages, costs, and rents at an equal rate. The chancellor also entered into negotiations with Germany's western Allies, including France, Great Britain, and the United States, to ensure there were no obstacles to reunification and that the territory of the former East Germany would come under the auspices of NATO. Kohl further renounced any territorial claims still extant from World War II. On 3 October 1990, East and West Germany were reunified.

National elections in 1990 again returned Kohl as chancellor. He supported military action against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein during the Persian Gulf War. Since Germany's constitution forbade the deployment of forces overseas except as part of a NATO mission, Kohl provided $5.5 billion in monetary support to the allies during the conflict. Germany was the first country to recognize Slovenia and Croatia when they seceded from Yugoslavia in 1991. Kohl also supported the anti-Communist revolutions throughout Europe. The chancellor worked with other European leaders to establish the principles behind the Maastricht Treaty, including agreement on a single European currency and the location of the planned European Central Bank in Frankfurt am Main. Most significantly, Kohl gained approval for strict requirements on monetary policy for states to adopt the single currency, the euro. Signed in 1992, the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993.

During the Bosnian Conflict, Kohl supported NATO intervention. In 1996, the Bundestag approved the deployment of 3,000 troops in the Bosnia mission (under NATO command). The vote was 499 to 93 and reflected the high level of support for Kohl's foreign policy. The mission also marked the largest deployment of troops outside of Germany since World War II.

Domestically, Kohl was forced to increase taxes in order to cover the costs of reunification and to stimulate economic growth in the territory of the former East Germany. Germany also emerged as one of the main sources of foreign aid for Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union. In the 1994 elections, Kohl's coalition was significantly reduced. He was unable to implement a series of planned economic reforms. Meanwhile, unemployment rose to more than 10 percent. In elections in 1998, the CDU and FDP lost to a Social Democrat-led coalition. The leader of the Social Democrats, Gerhard F. Schroder, became chancellor. Kohl resigned as CDU leader after the election but remained in the Bundestag until 2002. After he left office, Kohl faced a variety of corruption charges, although he was never formally charged. Kohl retired from politics in 2002.

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