Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl is doing “well under the circumstances” after undergoing two operations, his office said on Tuesday, in response to media reports about the health of the man who oversaw German reunification.
Kohl, 85, had a hip operation early last month, which went well, and subsequently needed a further operation which prolonged his hospitalization, a statement said, without specifying what the second operation concerned.
“Under the circumstances, Dr Helmut Kohl is doing well,” it added.
However, the German Deutsche Presse-Agentur press agency, citing a member of Kohl’s entourage, said the former leader was “in a very serious condition.”
Media reports citing his entourage had earlier said that Kohl was in intensive care after undergoing surgery.
News outlet Spiegel Online and glossy celebrity magazine Bunte reported that the conservative elder statesman had an intestinal operation at the university clinic of Heidelberg.
Spiegel said Kohl had been in the intensive care ward for three weeks and was in a “critical” condition.
Early last month, Bild newspaper had reported that Kohl had successfully undergone a hip replacement operation and quoted him as saying he wanted “to be home again as quickly as possible.”
Kohl, in his prime, cut an imposing figure at 1.93m, while his weight was a German state secret.
He also became a political giant, serving 16 years as German chancellor, from 1982 until 1998, during which time he oversaw his country’s peaceful reunification the year after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as the end to the Cold War.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was seen as Kohl’s protegee. He brought her into the Cabinet in 1991, but she later turned against him when he became embroiled in a slush fund scandal.
The affair is seen as having helped propel Merkel to the helm of the Christian Democratic Union party and later the country.
Kohl exited active politics in 2002 and has been recently used a wheelchair. His speech was severely impaired after his jaw was paralyzed in a fall.
One of the key architects of Europe’s push towards unity, Kohl is a passionate European and has often argued that building an integrated Europe is crucial to ensuring that war never again ravages the continent.
He published a book last year titled Out of Concern for Europe, in which he lashed out at his successors over their policies in Russia and on the euro.
In 2001, his wife, Hannelore, committed suicide.
In 2008, Kohl married economy ministry aide Maike Richter, 35 years his junior.
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