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" As a German, in view of the history of World War II and the terrible deeds of the Nazi period, I feel a special obligation to help as much as I can to develop European-Israeli relations and thus contribute to ensuring Israel's future and existence. "

Helmut Kohl

View

World

Future

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" The Christian Democrats always made you feel like the poor relation. "

" As a child, I personally didn't really get to know any Jews. I was eight years old when the Night of Broken Glass happened. And Ludwigshafen was purely a workers' city, so we didn't have a very big Jewish community. What I did know about the Jews, I heard from my mother. My mother was very much pro-Jewish. "

" The most important rule of the new Europe is: There must never again be violence in Europe. "

" I like everything that makes you fat. "

" German and European unification are two sides of the same coin. "

" George Bush was for me the most important ally on the road to German unity. "

Helmut Kohl

Most

Road

" My childhood ended in 1942. I was 12, and for the next three years, I lived under incessant bombings. It was a life of constant fear. "

" I have made a very good living, for more than 30 years, by being underestimated. "

Helmut Kohl

Than

Years

" My parents were Christians - Catholics, but not in the close-minded sense. I remember my mother to be a very pious woman, but she was never against other religions. "

" The army is under orders to defend every place. "

" Two decisions have damaged the stability both of the euro and of Europe: the premature admission of Greece to the euro area and the breach and subsequent weakening of the stability and growth pact. "

" I have every reason, despite the resentment and exasperation, to be proud. I have nothing better to be proud of than being proud of German unity. "

" I have been underestimated for decades. I have done very well that way. "

" Where there is no will, no rules or laws can help. "

" Solitary decisions, no matter how well-founded they may appear to individuals, must belong to the past - along with national, unilateralist action. "

" In a democracy, if you don't get the votes, nothing else is possible, no matter how wonderful your dreams. "

" When people come to write about my period of office, I would be very happy if they say that I made a contribution to finding the happy medium again for the Germans. "

" If a Chancellor is trying to push something through, he must be a man of power. And if he's smart, he knows when the time is ripe. In one case - the euro - I was like a dictator... The euro is a synonym for Europe. "

" It was a stroke of luck that there were about four to six leaders in power in the mid-'80s who really trusted one another and could really make things happen. "

" If one has no compass, when one doesn't know where one stands and where one wants to go, one can deduce that one has no leadership or interest in shaping events. "

Helmut Kohl

Know

Leadership

" You didn't just pay lip service to the goal of overcoming the division of Europe and Germany... Rather, you put yourself at the forefront of those who encouraged us on the way to unity. "

Helmut Kohl

Yourself

Service

" Isolated decisions, however well-founded they might seem to the individual, and national go-it-alone moves must belong to the past. They should not be the 21st-century method of choice, particularly because the consequences of the European community's actions must often be carried collectively. "

" I knew that I could never win a referendum in Germany. We would have lost a referendum on the introduction of the euro. That's quite clear. I would have lost, and by seven to three. "

" I ask myself where Germany stands today and where it wants to go. "

Helmut Kohl

Myself

Today

" I experienced Nazism as a child. Like many of my generation, I was motivated by the desire to prevent another war at any price. "

" Political life is like this - elections go back and forth. Representative democracy can only be successful if one sits down and says, 'That's it. I will connect myself,' - as I did - 'connect my existence to a political project.' Then you automatically have in your party a lot of people who say, 'If that fails, so do I'. "

" When I was elected to head the German government, I was fortunate enough to find a partner in Francois Mitterrand. "

" Russia is Germany's most important neighbor in the East, and it will remain so. "

" We Germans have learned from history. We are a peace-loving, freedom-loving people. There is only one place for us in the world: at the side of the free nations. "

" Peace must be more than the absence of war. "