2024-07-17 07:41:34
The grave of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl is neglected. There is not even a gravestone to honor the statesman. For his son Walter, the culprit is clear.
Helmut Kohl’s eldest son Walter blames the former chancellor’s widow, Maike Kohl-Richter (60), for the desolate state of his father’s grave. He told the “Bild” newspaper: “It is shameful that more than seven years after my father’s death, Maike has not managed to erect a dignified gravestone. Visitors today see an overgrown, unkempt grave with a loveless wooden cross on which the paint is crumbling.” Read more about the condition of Kohl’s grave here.
Kohl’s son Walter also regrets that he and his younger brother Peter (59) “have their hands tied legally”. “Otherwise the grave would look different,” Walter assured the “Bild” newspaper. He also finds the condition of his father’s grave “outrageous”. Son Walter is also bothered by the fact that his father’s grave is fenced off.
“It is absurd that the grave of a man who made a significant contribution to the fall of the Berlin Wall and to European unification should be so desecrated by the arbitrariness of one person.”
Stefanie Seiler (41, SPD), mayor of the city of Speyer (Rhineland-Palatinate) – the location of Kohl’s grave – is also criticized by her son Walter. Seiler had assured him that she would “remove this eyesore. Nothing has happened to date, despite my repeated requests to finally fulfill her promise from March 2022.” A surveillance camera of the grave installed by Kohl’s widow, however, was removed in November 2022.
CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann (46) also told Bild: “Helmut Kohl has rendered unique services to our country. It is all the more sad that his grave is in such an unkempt state.” He would like Kohl’s grave to be restored to a dignified condition. “If we as the CDU in Germany can make our contribution to this, we are of course happy to do so.”