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AFP
Berlin
Germany's longest serving post-war leader Helmut Kohl, the father of national reunification and an architect of European integration, died Friday at the age of 87.
Kohl helped long-divided Germany navigate the traumatic transition to a reunified country, and worked with France's Francois Mitterand to shape the European project.
He also pushed Germans to part with their cherished Deutschmarks in favour of the single European currency, the euro.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a moving tribute to her mentor, saying"Kohl changed my life decisively".
Merkel, who grew up in the communist German Democratic Republic, said that thanks to him, she,"like millions of other people, could leave a life of GDR dictatorship and enter into a life of freedom".
"All that has happened in the past 27 years from then until today would have been unimaginable without Helmut Kohl," she said.
"It will be a while before we will truly be able to measure what we have lost with his passing," Merkel said, adding that she was"personally thankful that he was there".
"I bow down before his remembrance," said Merkel, who described Kohl as a"great German and great European".
Tributes also poured in from abroad, with former US 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".
Kohl died peacefully in his bed at home in Ludwigshafen, in the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate, said the Bild newspaper, adding that his wife Maike Kohl-Richter was by his side.
Mourning his mentor and friend, Juncker said:"Helmut Kohl filled the European house with life -- not only because he built bridges to the west as well as to the east, but also because he never ceased to design even better blueprints for the future of Europe."
Bush, describing Kohl as"a true friend of freedom", said:"Helmut hated war -- but he detested totalitarianism even more".
