April 4 (Bloomberg) -- Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl will be awarded the Henry A. Kissinger Prize by the American Academy in Berlin for his role in Germany’s reunification.
Kohl, 81, will receive the honor at a ceremony on May 16 in the German capital, with former U.S. President Bill Clinton and World Bank President Robert Zoellick giving introductory speeches, the academy said today in an e-mailed statement.
“Chancellor Kohl’s role as leader of Germany during the 1980s was of historic importance,” Kissinger, the former U.S. Secretary of State, was quoted as saying. “No one did more to make German reunification possible.”
Kohl was chancellor between 1982 and 1998, first in West Germany, then of the unified country after East and West Germany merged in 1990 at the end of the Cold War. Germans voted out his Christian Democrats in 1998, handing the chancellor’s post to Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder.
The prize has been given annually since 2007 to a European or U.S. citizen for outstanding contributions to the trans- Atlantic relationship. Previous recipients are former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, former German President Richard von Weizsaecker and New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, parent of Bloomberg News. Norman Pearlstine, chairman of Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg chief content officer, is president of the American Academy in Berlin.
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