25 June, 2017
"The maker of a united Germany and Franco-German friendship: with Helmut Kohl, we lose a great European", tweeted French President Emmanuel Macron, with an iconic picture of Kohl and Mitterrand holding hands at a memorial to the World War One battle of Verdun.
A spokesman for Ms Merkel expressed her deep sorrow over a great German and a great European.
Former US President George H.W. Bush said in a statement that working with Kohl "to achieve a peaceful end to the Cold War and the unification of Germany within North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will remain one of the great joys of my life". "His vision helped to usher the global community into the 21st century, to build bold and lasting relationships that endure to this day", Mr Clinton said.
The fall of the German wall in November 1989 opened a new era in European politics, and as the chasm between West and East Europe melted, European unification also became a possibility.
Kohl was honored as an Honorary Citizen of Europe by Clinton for his contribution to the integration of Europe and was regarded as a great politician. We missed him and we will miss him.
Tributes also poured in from overseas, with former United States president George H.W. Bush hailing "one of the greatest" post-war leaders, and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker honouring him as the "very essence of Europe".
Germany's Bild newspaper reported Mr Kohl died at his home in Ludwigshafen, the Rhineland city where he was born in April 1930.
Kohl, who had been in poor health and confined to a wheelchair since 2009, died on Friday at the age of 87. Throughout our endeavors, Helmut was a rock - both steady and strong.
Helmut Kohl was essentially in charge of two. After Kohl's speech, Gorbachev told German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher that, "it must be said directly that these ultimatums are being given to an independent and sovereign German state", calling the chancellor's statement "a political blunder".
"During his [Haughey's] presidency in the first half of 1990, Ireland played a decisive role in the process, since the area of the then GDR, today's east Germany, could be smoothly integrated into the then European unity without any real big problems", said the chancellor, speaking in German.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent his condolences to the German people and family of former chancellor Helmut Kohl after learning of the leader's death on Friday.
Germany's longest-serving chancellor since World War II lived long enough to see the European unity he championed see hard times after he left office.
Kohl, who served as chancellor for 16 years, considered Konrad Adenauer - West Germany's visionary first chancellor, who allowed the nation to make a fresh start after World War II - as an ideological forefather.
Kohl linked his dedication to a united Europe to his roots in a part of Germany close to France and his boyhood memories of wartime.
The following year, Kohl plunged his party into crisis when he admitted accepting undeclared donations during his time as chancellor. During a relatively uneventful first phase of his tenure as chancellor, Kohl built solid relationships with leaders of western states such as France and the United States, and also with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
