69 Quotes by Helmut Kohl

My childhood ended in 1942. I was 12, and for the next three years, I lived under incessant bombings. It was a life of constant fear.

I experienced Nazism as a child. Like many of my generation, I was motivated by the desire to prevent another war at any price.

Where there is no will, no rules or laws can help.

I knew that I could never win a referendum in Germany. We would have lost a referendum on the introduction of the euro. That's quite clear. I would have lost, and by seven to three.

In a democracy, if you don't get the votes, nothing else is possible, no matter how wonderful your dreams.

As a child, I personally didn't really get to know any Jews. I was eight years old when the Night of Broken Glass happened. And Ludwigshafen was purely a workers' city, so we didn't have a very big Jewish community. What I did know about the Jews, I heard from my mother. My mother was very much pro-Jewish.

Isolated decisions, however well-founded they might seem to the individual, and national go-it-alone moves must belong to the past. They should not be the 21st-century method of choice, particularly because the consequences of the European community's actions must often be carried collectively.

I like everything that makes you fat.

Solitary decisions, no matter how well-founded they may appear to individuals, must belong to the past - along with national, unilateralist action.