Helmut Kohl, 78, Marries Girlfriend in Hospital

Health fears mount for architect of German reunification
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted May 14, 2008 2:34 PM CDT
Helmut Kohl, 78, Marries Girlfriend in Hospital
Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, left, speaks with his companion Maike Richter, right, in Berlin in this July 20, 2007, file photo.    (AP Photo)

Helmut Kohl, the chancellor first of West Germany and then of a reunified Federal Republic, has married at the age of 78. But the wedding, to an economist 30 years his junior, took place in a hospital amid fears that he is in deteriorating health. As the Independent reports, Kohl's new bride, Maike Richter, has been standing in for him at public events, and the ex-chancellor has no plans to leave the clinic.

Kohl served as chancellor—first in Bonn, and later in Berlin—from 1982 to 1998, but his reputation was tarnished by a party funding scandal. In 2001 Kohl's first wife committed suicide after contracting a rare allergy that forced her to avoid sunlight. Friends say the German leader went into a period of mourning that ended only when he met Richter, who he said "has made me very happy in every way." (More Helmut Kohl stories.)

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