born April 3, 1930, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Ger.
Chancellor of West Germany (198290) and of reunified Germany (199098).
After earning a doctorate at the University of Heidelberg, he was elected to the Rhineland-Palatinate legislature and became the state's minister president (1969). In 1973 he was elected chair of the Christian Democratic Union , and in 1982 he became Germany's chancellor. Kohl's centrist policies included modest cuts in government spending and strong support for West German commitments to NATO. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Kohl concluded a treaty with East Germany that unified the two countries' economic systems. Absorption of the moribund East German economy proved difficult, and Kohl's government had to increase taxes and cut government spending after unification. In 1998 his coalition government with the Free Democratic Party was defeated by the Social Democrats under Gerhard Schröder . Revelations of serious financial irregularities during Kohl's chancellorship soon emerged, tainting his reputation and weakening his party.