
Helmut Kohl: The German Chancellor Who Wished for Too Much (2017) - Tomte
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/28/helmut-kohl-obituary-216195
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woodpanel
As has been noted by others before: Using unflattering pictures of Kohl has a
long history. The term "Birne" (pear) is immediately associated with Kohl in a
derogatory context to most Germans.

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.

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southerndrift
Helmut Kohl has killed the fiber to the home project[1] of his predecessor
Helmut Schmidt in 1985!

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...](https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Missing-Link-Der-Kampf-um-die-
Glasfaser-oder-Der-verpasste-Breitbandausbau-in-Deutschland-3952581.html) (in
German)

~~~
merb
he did even more worse things, like the donation affair, which he did got away
with just 300.000 DM!

~~~
southerndrift
By now, Germany could have 100M or 1G internet in every home. Major cities
could have been connected in 1990! With that infrastructure, you can offer
wlan everywhere and role out GSM much much faster.

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.

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__bjoernd
The fall of the Berlin Wall saved him back then. He was facing internal
opposition that wanted to get rid of him as party leader and given the
economic situation people believed he would not win the next federal election
either. Then history happened and he grabbed the opportunity to become the
father of modern Germany.

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.

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wuschel
Just a comment to underline the bias generated by images: It is sad to see how
the press show pictures of Kohl at the very end of his life, with a bitter
mimic on his face. The photo of this article makes him look frail - in real
life, Kohl was tall, voluminous man, a strong politician who crushed all
opposition inside and outside of his party for 16 years.

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.

~~~
baybal2
12 years ago, it was Kohl whom my 15 year old self found to be a starting
point for new breed of politicians and the trend of "more populism with each
election" that lasted to this day

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

~~~
pjc50
What to you would constitute a platform?

~~~
baybal2
Well, at least something that passes as a joint "direction," publicly
announced, and upheld.

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.

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ant6n
> He was determined to transform the territories of former East Germany into
> “a garden of beautiful flowers,” as he put it, hoping that West German money
> could help a formerly communist region flourish.

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.

~~~
Fnoord
Which is vague and can have a figurative meaning as well.

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zmix
Sadly, this text seems to be only available in German, but for those, who
speak it, it may be a well interesting read:

[http://www.spreeblick.com/blog/2007/05/04/die-erfinder-
von-h...](http://www.spreeblick.com/blog/2007/05/04/die-erfinder-von-helmut-
kohl/)

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.

