Helmut Josef Michael Kohl was born on April 3, 1930, into a conservative Roman Catholic family in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, in the Friesenheim district, as the third child of Hans Kohl, a Bavarian army veteran and civil servant who opposed the Nazis by resigning from a veterans' group, and Cäcilie Schnur. During his childhood amid Nazi Germany, Kohl joined the Deutsches Jungvolk at age 10 and was sworn into the Hitler Youth at 15, receiving late-war military training but avoiding combat due to the war's end. After the war, he completed his Abitur at Max-Planck-Gymnasium in 1950, briefly studied law at Goethe University Frankfurt (1950-1951), then transferred to Heidelberg University (1951-1956) where he earned a PhD (Dr. phil.) in history in 1958 under Walther Peter Fuchs, with a dissertation on postwar political developments in the Palatinate. Joining the CDU at age 16 in 1946, he co-founded the Junge Union locally, worked in industry, and entered Rhineland-Palatinate politics, becoming the state's youngest Minister-President in 1969 at age 39 and serving until 1976. Kohl's federal ascent included CDU leadership roles from 1969, becoming party chairman in 1973, leading the opposition post-1976, and ascending to Chancellor of West Germany in 1982, serving until 1990 and then as Chancellor of reunified Germany until 1998 for a record 16 years. He oversaw German reunification, the Cold War's end, and EU founding via Maastricht, earning nicknames like 'Chancellor of Unity' internationally while facing domestic criticism for lacking charisma and economic depth early on. Married Hannelore Renner in 1960 (met 1948; she died by suicide in 2001 amid a rare disease), they had sons Walter (born 1963, Harvard-educated entrepreneur) and Peter (born 1965, MIT-educated); Kohl remarried Maike Kohl-Richter (economist, former aide) in 2008 amid health decline, sparking a family rift as sons alleged isolation and pressure. Later scandals tarnished his legacy: the 1999-2000 CDU donations affair revealed illegal slush funds under his watch (no personal gain proven, but he resigned honorary chairmanship); Flick affair ties; Kirch credit controversy; 2016 lawsuit win (1M euro damages) against biographers for unauthorized book using old interviews. Health woes post-2007 stroke included paralysis, surgeries, and wheelchair use. Kohl died of natural causes on June 16, 2017, aged 87, in Ludwigshafen-Oggersheim; buried privately in Speyer beside family, excluding sons per widow's decision.