HELMUT KOHL

Peace must be more than the absence of war.

You didn't just pay lip service to the goal of overcoming the division of Europe and Germany... Rather, you put yourself at the forefront of those who encouraged us on the way to unity.

The army is under orders to defend every place.

Russia is Germany's most important neighbor in the East, and it will remain so.

The Christian Democrats always made you feel like the poor relation.

We were united not only by political respect for each other, but also by deep mutual sympathy as people.

I have been underestimated for decades. I have done very well that way.

For me it is completely clear that our air bases in Germany would be available to the Americans.

George Bush was for me the most important ally on the road to German unity.

The visionaries of yesterday are the realists of today.

The means of existence of our country will break down, once the floodgates are open to the foreigners.

My parents were Christians - Catholics, but not in the close-minded sense. I remember my mother to be a very pious woman, but she was never against other religions.

German and European unification are two sides of the same coin.

The most important rule of the new Europe is: There must never again be violence in Europe.

There must be no question for us that we in the European Union and the eurozone stand by Greece in solidarity.

Nations with a common currency never went to war against each other. A common currency is more than the money you pay with.

Political life is like this - elections go back and forth. Representative democracy can only be successful if one sits down and says, 'That's it. I will connect myself,' - as I did - 'connect my existence to a political project.' Then you automatically have in your party a lot of people who say, 'If that fails, so do I'.

We Germans have learned from history. We are a peace-loving, freedom-loving people. There is only one place for us in the world: at the side of the free nations.

We all need Europe, not just those of us in Europe. And we Germans need Europe more than the others. Germany is the country with the longest border, the most neighbours, and is, by population and economic strength, the number one in Europe.

I like everything that makes you fat.

In German history, we don't have many reasons to be proud.

I don't want to give myself grades. I will leave evaluation of my achievements to history.

Germany is our fatherland; Europe is our future.

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.

I ask myself where Germany stands today and where it wants to go.