Germany on Monday mourned the death of Bernhard Vogel, a political titan who led state governments on both sides of the country’s former divide.
Vogel, from the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has died at the age of 92, the party confirmed.
He was the premier of two states for a combined 23 years, a record that cemented his legacy as a leading figure in German politics around the time of reunification in 1990.
Former chancellor Angela Merkel once described Vogel as “historically unique” for having led governments in both the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate and in the eastern state of Thuringia, once part of communist East Germany.
Friedrich Merz, the country’s presumptive next chancellor, described Vogel on Monday as a “bridge builder between East and West” who “leaves a lasting legacy.”
Vogel’s political career began in the 1960s, when he formed close ties with Helmut Kohl, who later became the first chancellor of reunified Germany.
Vogel became premier of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1976, before losing an internal power struggle in 1988.
After a stint as chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a leading conservative think tank associated with the CDU, Vogel returned to power in a vastly different context in Thuringia in 1992, replacing a CDU leader who was accused of having worked for the Stasi, the East German security service.
He led the state until his retirement from politics in 2003.
“The idea of becoming premier in another German state was so far-fetched that nobody had had it for a long time,” said Vogel in 2022. “I hadn’t imagined it would be so difficult,” he added.
