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Helmut Kohl's widow rejects the planned foundation

2021-05-07T18:52:40.622Z


The project was very popular in the Bundestag - but Maike Kohl-Richter is reluctant to establish a planned foundation in honor of the former chancellor. In doing so, she reveals her strained relationship with the CDU.


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Maike Kohl-Richter (archive)

Photo: Andreas Arnold / dpa

Maike Kohl-Richter rejects the establishment of a Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl Foundation in its planned form.

"In my role as heiress and widow of Helmut Kohl, I did not agree to the project," she wrote on her website on Thursday.

"The plan contradicts my husband's last will."

The Bundestag wanted to decide on the establishment of the foundation on Thursday evening.

When the corresponding draft law was first discussed in April, a large majority was in favor.

The Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation and the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation are role models for the project.

According to the draft law, the purpose of the foundation should be "the political work of Dr.

Helmut Kohls for the freedom and unity of the German people, for peace in the world, for reconciliation with neighboring European states and for European integration ”.

The eleven-page press release reconstructs Kohl-Richter's displeasure with the CDU

In her statement, Kohl-Richter refers to an eleven-page press release written by a law firm.

Among other things, the "confidence-building measures" between her and the CDU, which Kohl-Richter considers necessary, are described in detail as having failed.

Among other things, her "concerns and considerations" regarding the foundation were "not heard" by the Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus and Minister of Culture Monika Grütters.

“The CDU has not (so far) been impressed by my concerns and ideas, which I discussed with my husband over many years and which we developed together.

The CDU is risking with sight that Helmut Kohl will become the plaything of politics and a new majority «, she writes.

Kohl-Richter had already got into disputes with various people and institutions regarding the estate and the authority to interpret the work of the former Federal Chancellor in the past.

Among other things, it was about files and documents that Kohl had given to the archive of the CDU-affiliated Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in 1998 and later had them picked up again.

Kohl-Richter told Deutschlandfunk that she wanted to do something about Helmut Kohl, "in agreement" with her.

Helmut Kohl was Chancellor of the Federal Republic from 1982 to 1998 and CDU Chairman from 1973 to 1998.

His name stands for the regaining of German unity and the expansion of European integration, but also for the CDU donation affair uncovered in 1999.

ire / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-05-07

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