No other politician embodied the dullness of German politics in the 1980s and most of the 1990s as fully as Helmut Kohl.

As chancellor from 1982 to 1998, Kohl presided over German reunification and the Maastricht Treaty. He personified the postwar German love affair with uncharismatic politicians and established an impenetrable social consensus that prioritized the interests of German capital over all else.

Obituaries in German media have praised Kohl for his pivotal role in European integration. They’ve hailed his willingness to sacrifice the much-beloved Deutschmark on the altar of the euro as a selfless act of Europeanism, one that proved once and for all that Germany had given up on its imperial ambitions.