Kohl, Hannelore Renner

▪ 2002

      German political wife (b. March 7, 1933, Berlin, Ger.—d. July 5, 2001, Ludwigshafen, Ger.), as the wife of Helmut Kohl (from 1960), was the de facto first lady during his 16 years as chancellor of West Germany (1982–90) and reunified Germany (1990–98). Trained as an interpreter in French and English, she used superb language skills as well as her personal warmth and charm to enhance the traditional role of political wife. Kohl elicited sympathetic public support as she stood by her husband during the difficult period before and after West German reunification with East Germany, the hard-fought national election he lost in 1998, and the financial scandal that engulfed him after he left office. In 1993 she was stricken with photodermatitis, a rare allergy to sunlight, and the escalating isolation and physical pain she experienced eventually led her to take her own life.

* * *