The chancellor who seized the initiative on the German question with a ten-point unification plan days before Malta
On 28 November 1989, Kohl rose in the Bundestag without having told his allies, or even his own foreign minister. President Bush received Kohl's letter summarizing the Ten-Point Plan just as the chancellor was already speaking in Bonn.
A Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician who served sixteen years as chancellor of West Germany and reunified Germany, leading both European integration and German reunification. On 28 November 1989, without consulting his allies, he presented a 'Ten-Point Plan' for German unity to the Bundestag; days later, at the Malta summit, the German question dominated the proceedings on his terms. The following year, on 3 October 1990, Germany was reunified; together with French president François Mitterrand, Kohl drove the Maastricht Treaty and the introduction of the euro. He achieved reunification by extending the West German system into the former East, and after his long tenure ended with electoral defeat in 1998, he resigned as CDU honorary chairman amid a party donations scandal.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1959Elected to the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate (youngest member)
- 1969–1976Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate
- 1973–1998Chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
- 1976–1982Leader of the CDU/CSU opposition in the Bundestag
- 1982–1998Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
- 1989.11.28Presented the Ten-Point Plan for German unity to the Bundestag
- 1990.10.03Presided over German reunification
- 1998Defeated in federal elections; resigned as CDU chairman
Monetary and economic union and the transformation of East Germany
In early 1990, Kohl’s government pursued monetary and economic union with East Germany as a means of accelerating reunification. On 6 February Kohl announced that a monetary union would be offered to the GDR. On 18 May, West German Finance Minister Theo Waigel and his East German counterpart Walter Romberg signed a state treaty. It took effect on 1 July, making the Deutsche Mark legal tender in the GDR and introducing the social market economy. The measure accelerated unification while bringing East Germans into the West German currency and economic system. The Bundesbank, West Germany’s central bank, took part in negotiations and transported around 440 million banknotes and 102 million coins to East Germany; its staff worked with employees of the GDR State Bank to arrange distribution. The two German states were united on 3 October. This route of monetary, economic and social integration also entailed transforming East Germany’s existing planned economy into the West German social market economy.