ABSTRACT
HELMUT KOHL'S term in office was 'not one 16-year term, but two 8-year terms. Eight years before unification and eight years after'. 1 This assessment is true in two very distinct senses. First, it points to the overwhelming significance of the unification process and Kohl's role therein. Second, it indicates that without the momentous changes from 1989 onwards his first eight years in office may very well not have been followed by another eight. If Margaret Thatcher had secured her second election victory in 1983 on a wave of nationalism following the Falklands War, Kohl benefited from similar popular feeling following the 'velvet revolution' of 1989 and the subsequent drive towards the unification of Germany.
