Die Ära Kohl im Gespräch: Eine Zwischenbilanz (review)

Foundations (Stiftungen) affiliated with the major political parties are an interesting feature of the German political landscape. Supported by public funds, these hybrid organizations—which are neither governmental nor entirely nongovernmental—perform a variety of functions. They act as think tanks and civic education agencies, and as depositories for political party records; offices abroad offer political education and party development assistance in many countries around the world. The book reviewed here is the result of a series of conferences organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS). Starting in 2001, the conference proceedings appeared in its journal Historisch-Politische Mitteilungen. The journal editors, members of the research department of the KAS, also serve as the book editors. The 2010 publication date was timely, for it coincided with Helmut Kohl’s eightieth birthday. The idea for the conference series originated in 2000, during the heyday of the party finance scandal that threatened to cast a permanent shadow on Helmut Kohl’s achievements as party leader and chancellor of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The aim of the conferences was, in the words of the organizers and editors, to initiate “first steps toward the historiography of Kohl’s chancellorship and to stimulate questions, perspectives and analyses” (XIII). Title and subtitle reinforce the preliminary character of the findings. Scholarly analyses find themselves here together with firsthand political accounts. The book’s chapters vary widely in length and style. Scholarly contributions are detailed and supported by academic references, while commentaries by politicians, policy experts, and journalists are shorter reflections on topics as diverse as finance and media. Its contributors include former high-ranking CDU and Christian Social Union (CSU) politicians and one member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Klaus von Dohnanyi.

Research on Helmut Kohl, the longest reigning chancellor in the history of the Federal Republic, has tended to focus on his leadership style as head of the CDU and as chancellor, or on his policy record and his legacy in politics and policy. This edited volume falls into the second category. Leaving aside his crucial role in German unification, his record may be strongest in foreign affairs, in particular in shaping Germany’s relations with the United States and France and, most important, in deepening European integration. If foreign policy was his métier, what about domestic policy? What was the relationship between continuity and change? How important was the caesura of 1990, the year of German unification, in the pursuit of policy initiatives? Did the much-hailed reform gridlock (Reformstau) in the 1990s result from the preoccupation with unification? Or was it the outcome of (continued) missed opportunities? For readers interested in answers to these questions, the various chapters provide valuable starting points for discussion. The book casts its net widely as a range of public policy areas is covered: economics and finance; media; European integration; family, women, and youth affairs; cultural affairs; environmental policy; transatlantic relations; and social policy, as well as German-German relations. Yet academics looking for in-depth and up-to-date coverage of Kohl’s leadership should look elsewhere. Since the articles were reprinted in their original form, new and important research published in recent years is not included. In addition, many of the authors have already elaborated on their topics in much greater detail elsewhere. A prime example among many is Gerhard A. Ritter’s insightful chapter on social policy and German unification. His findings have been published as a book, which is also available in English translation (Der Preis der deutschen Einheit: Die Wiedervereinigung und die Krise des Sozialstaats [Munich, 2006]; The Price of German Unity: Reunification and the Crisis of the Welfare State [Oxford, 2011]).

The Kohl era is often divided into two major phases: the years from 1982 to 1989 and from 1990 to 1998. In this edited volume, the 1980s are given privileged treatment. Yet the most profound changes...