Helmut Kohl: The Grave Monument in a public Park and his Life

_{The Grave Monument after completion in October 2025, Photo: © Dr. Maike Kohl-Richter}

A Place of Deep Symbolism

The burial site of the long-serving German Federal Chancellor is a place of deep symbolic meaning with respect to Helmut Kohl. Here, in the Adenauer Park in Speyer Helmut Kohl rests in his homeland, in Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz). In addition, Speyer is the city of the Imperial Cathedral of Europe. Helmut Kohl was a devout Catholic. The Christian faith was an important source of strength for him throughout his life. He visited the cathedral with his parents as a child and it was for him something like a spiritual home. Helmut Kohl was also a convinced European. During his chancellorship (1982–1998), he often brought international guests to this cathedral to share in its symbolic power as a monument to Christian, democratic, and European unity.

A Monument, Not Just a Grave

Redesigned in October 2025, the site has taken on the form of a memorial monument rather than a traditional grave. This reflects both the public significance of Helmut Kohl and his resting place as well as the character of its surroundings: The Adenauer Park has long since ceased to serve as a burial ground for the citizens of Speyer. It has become a public park and is a place for reflection, walking, and community life. Given Helmut Kohl's significance and in such a setting, a traditional, plantable, and openly accessible grave would not be appropriate.

_{Grave, June 2023. Photo: © Dr. Maike Kohl-Richter}

_{Tomb, October 2025. Photo: © Dr. Maike Kohl-Richter}

The Process from Grave to Monument

Despite his public significance and prominence, Helmut Kohl’s resting place remains private, and responsibility for its design and care lies with Maike Kohl-Richter, his widow and heir.

In 2020, she described her vision for the grave as follows:

“It is a challenge to do the right thing. It is a decision for eternity. The grave must be worthy of my husband and, in a certain sense, have the character of a monument. It must be dignified yet simple.” (From: Speyer, Helmut Kohl, St. Bernhard und der Adenauerpark, brochure by Markus Lothar Lamm / Lenelotte Möller, Kunstverlag Josef Fink, 2020.)

In 2025, after completion she reflected on the process from the grave to the monument:

“Designing the grave was an intensive process of maturation – lasting over months, indeed over years, since my husband’s death in 2017. I asked myself: What would be beautiful for him, what would do him justice, what would please him, what would suit this place and this setting? I was just sure it should be a monument made of native sandstone, but the specific design took more time for several reasons. In 2019, I opted for a temporary design allowing for a grave that could be planted for a while longer. For the final design, it took a number of further drafts until it became clear to me: The monument had to be monolithic – as deep as it is wide, equally strong on all sides. Just as we built it and as it stands today.

The monolithic shape and the clear, reduced design, with historicizing profiles and the hand-carved lettering, reflect my husband’s nature. The monument, 2.5 meters high, is large and commanding, yet not oppressive. It stands firm and serene, radiating strength, calm, dignity, and openness. It is not unapproachable, but it inspires respect and restraint. It is exactly what I had envisioned for my husband. I am sure he would have liked it. That was my guiding principle and benchmark.

Of course, I did not create it alone. In Holger Grimm, sculptor and stonemason from Speyer, I found a partner who complemented me perfectly. Over the years we developed and refined the concept together. He realized it with artistic sensitivity and craftsmanship. And the gardening work around the monument was carried out with equal dedication by “Burkard Blumenhaus und Friedhofsgärtnerei”, a gardening company from Speyer.”

The Details of the Grave Site

The monument is made of light-yellow local sandstone with little veining. It is almost as deep as it is wide: the central inscription stone is about 1.20 meters high, it measures about 1 meter in width and 80 centimeters in depth. The base is roughly 60 centimeters high, and the capstone about 35 centimeters. Including the blue-gray granite foundation which measures about 1.70 meters by 1.40 meters and is 30 centimeters high, the overall height is approximately 2.5 meters. The design is restrained and harmonious, the profiles marking the transitions from the base to the central inscription stone and from the inscription stone to the capstone are historically inspired, and the lettering is hand-carved and color-accentuated for readability.

_{October 2025, sandstone, as wide as deep, hand-carved lettering. Photo: © Dr. Maike Kohl-Richter}

The monument stands within a stone field of about 25 square meters, bordered by granite paving and filled with gabion stones of the same material. This field marks the private area of the grave and is not intended for public access.

The monument and stone field are enclosed by a U-shaped hedge of cypresses, forming the boundary to the adjacent Capitular Cemetery and concealing the fence erected there in 2017 by the Speyer Cathedral Chapter in order to separate their cemetery from the public park and Helmut Kohls burial site.

In front of the grave, slightly set back from the park path, is a recess for visitors to pause in peace. A sandstone bench invites them to rest. Two granite panels allow visitors to place flowers and candles in remembrance of Helmut Kohl. A low evergreen planting of holly-leaf osmanthus marks clearly where the publicly accessible area ends and the private burial ground begins, ensuring that the peace of the dead is preserved.

Through a QR code leading to the websites https://www.helmut-kohl.de/grabmal (DE) and https://www.helmut-kohl.de/grave-monument (EN), visitors may access detailed information in German and English about the monument and the life and work of the former Chancellor.

A Monument, but Still a Grave

_{October 2025, a monument, but still a grave. Photo: © Dr. Maike Kohl-Richter}

The overall design gives the grave the outward form of a memorial, while losing the appearance of a traditional grave – and yet it remains, at heart, a grave, a place of peace and remembrance.

May Helmut Kohl’s resting place, in accordance with his life’s work for peace, freedom, and reconciliation, be a site of respect, silence, and reflection – a place of grateful memory.

The Life and Work of Helmut Kohl

_{In 2013, Helmut Kohl in his office in Berlin. Photo: © Daniel Biskup}

Helmut Kohl (1930-2017) was Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1982 to 1998. With more than sixteen years in office, he remains the longest-serving German Chancellor.

Under his leadership, Germany was reunified (October 3, 1990) and the division of Europe as well as the World in a free and an unfree part ended (1989/90/91). His commitment to the European idea led to milestones such as the Single European Market (decision of 1985), the Eastern enlargement of the EU (decision of 1994), and the decision of summer 1998 to introduce the common European currency, the Euro, on January 1, 1999.

“Chancellor of Unity" and “Honorary Citizen of Europe”

For his historic achievements and his outstanding role in German and European reunification, Helmut Kohl has gone down in history as the “Chancellor of Unity” (Kanzler der Einheit) and was named “Honorary Citizen of Europe” (Ehrenbürger Europas) by the heads of state and government of the European Union in December 1998 after he had left office.

(Helmut Kohl, portrait by Ernst Günter Hansing, 1996)

Biography

Helmut Kohl was born on April 3, 1930, in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Rhineland-Palatinate, in a traditional chemical city (hometown of BASF). He was the youngest of three children of Hans Kohl (1887–1975), a financial officer, and Cäcilie Kohl, née Schnur (1890–1979).

His youth was deeply marked by the Second World War (1939–1945), which he experienced as a child and teenager. He was nine years old when the war began and fifteen when it ended. That his elder brother died as a soldier in the war remained one of the defining traumata of his life.

The experiences of World War II shaped his lifelong commitment to freedom, peace and a democratic state based on the rule of law. He was interested in politics at an early age. He found his political home in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which was founded right after the war and whose principles rested on the Christian image of humanity. In 1947, at seventeen, he joined the CDU. He served as State Chairman of the CDU Rhineland-Palatinate (1966–1974) and as Federal Chairman of the CDU (1973–1998).

Kohl finished school with the high school diploma (Abitur) in Ludwigshafen on July 8, 1950; he completed his academic studies with a doctorate in history (Dr. phil.) at the University of Heidelberg on August 1, 1958.

After his studies he worked as a management assistant at the Alois Mock Foundry in Ludwigshafen (1958–1959); from 1959 to 1969 he was an employee of the Chemical Industry Association in Ludwigshafen, while already serving as a member of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Parliament (Landtag).

Political Career

From 1959 to 1976 he was a member of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Parliament (Landtag); from 1969 to 1976 he also served as prime minister of his homeland Rhineland-Palatinate; when he was elected as prime minister at the age of 39, he was the youngest German state premier at that time.

From 1976 to 2002, he was a member of the German Bundestag (until 1999 in Bonn, then in Berlin, the new German capital since 1990). From 1976 to 1982, as Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, he was the Leader of the Opposition during the SPD–FDP coalition governments.

On October 1, 1982, through the first successful constructive vote of no confidence in postwar Germany, Helmut Kohl became the sixth Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, succeeding Helmut Schmidt (SPD). He governed for sixteen years in a coalition of CDU/CSU and FDP.

In 1998, after four electoral victories (1983, 1987, 1990, and 1994), Helmut Kohl lost the federal election of September 27, 1998. His last day in office was on October 26, 1998. On October 27, 1998, he formally transferred office to Gerhard Schröder (SPD).

Personal Life

Helmut Kohl married Hannelore Renner in 1960. The couple had two sons. After a long illness (a rare light allergy), Hannelore Kohl took her own life in 2001.

In 2008, Helmut Kohl married his long-time companion Maike Kohl-Richter, née Richter who has a Doctorate in Economics.

Helmut Kohl passed away on June 16, 2017, at the age of 87, in his home in Ludwigshafen (Oggersheim).

On July 1, 2017, the world bid farewell to him during the first European funeral ceremony in history. The European act of mourning commenced with his coffin being transported from Ludwigshafen (Oggersheim) to Strasbourg for the memorial service in the European Parliament. It was then brought back to Rhineland-Palatinate, first to Ludwigshafen again for a change of transport. It continued via boat on the river Rhine to Speyer for the Requiem in the Imperial Cathedral. The official part ended in Speyer with the Grand Military Honors on the cathedral square. The ceremony followed the course of the Rhine, by land, water, and air, passed through Germany and France – symbolically emphasizing the importance of the German-French friendship – and was broadcast around the world.

It concluded with a private burial in the Adenauer Park in Speyer and a reception of friends and companions in the hotel/restaurant Deidesheimer Hof at Deidesheim.

Helmut Kohl mit seiner Frau Maike Kohl-Richter

_{Helmut Kohl and his wife Maike Kohl-Richter in 2013 on the terrace of their home in Ludwigshafen (Oggersheim). Photo: © Daniel Biskup}

Responsible for the website and contact: The Helmut Kohl Foundation

Responsible for this website is the Helmut Kohl Foundation (Helmut-Kohl-Stiftung e.V.), based in Ludwigshafen. It was founded in 2021 by Maike Kohl-Richter, who is its Chair. Further information on the life and legacy of Helmut Kohl can be found at the website www.helmut-kohl.de or by contacting the foundation at info@helmutkohlstiftung.de.