Below is a letter from former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl addressed to Viktor Orbán in which the elder statesman profusely praises the Hungarian prime minister. In fact, perhaps a little too profusely. One ought to know that in February 2008 Kohl suffered a stroke in combination with a fall which caused serious head injuries. Since then he has been reported to be wheelchair-bound due to partial paralysis and to have difficulty speaking.
Kohl in the letter assures his “liebe Viktor” of his absolute support and praises him for the joyful news of economic development under his tutelage. ATV turned to the European People’s Party wanting to know about the letter, but the inquiring reporter was told to turn to Kohl’s secretariat for details. According to some German sources, Kohl is no longer capable of writing letters. So who do you think the real author is?
Hungarian Spectrum 
Eva: ccording to some German sources, Kohl is no longer capable of writing letters. So who do you think the real author is?
His wife? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/03/helmut-kohl-new-wife-family-feud
Who wrote the letter?
Whoever took the payoff, of course!
Helmut Kohl would never write such a letter to such a person.
The tone is too servile. Attila Ara-Kovács mentioned the possibility of some Hungarian who suggested writing the letter in the first place.
Wolfi?
By the way, isn’t the Hungarian ambassador to Germany a former head of one of Hungary’s intelligence agencies? Probably he and his colleagues worked four years to get this letter somehow.
Merkel does not like Orban, but Kohl (and by extension his caretaker) does not like Merkel either, so the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
The fideszniks are pretty, pretty good at reaching the relatives of famous people and feeding them with lies (e.g. Lantos). Small scale generosity and praise seem to work.
The letter could have been forged or purchased from somebody at his secretariat, there are many ways.
It is a very important letter for Fidesz as finally a famous Western person , it seems, praises Fidesz and Orban himself.
Well, I hope the ruth will come out before the elections.
THis could be the biggest scandal of Fidesz yet, as there is no way Kohl would of been able to write or even dictate such letter.
Spiegel, September 26, 2012
” Kohl can barely talk any more. The man who shaped history with his words has practically fallen silent. He finds it difficult to speak and can scarcely engage in debate, he can’t even talk about his own actions as chancellor. ”
“You can still achieve a lot with the name Kohl. You can earn money with it, or use it to pursue political goals. ”
“Given that Kohl can barely move or speak, he is dependent on his wife. She is the gatekeeper, the person who controls his words. Maike Kohl-Richter decides who gets in and what gets out.
Kohl is a prisoner in that sense, but especially a prisoner of his own body. That makes him almost defenceless.”
Now, the interesting thing is that there is nothing about this letter to Orban in any other online portals then in Hungarian news sites…. I hope some German news organizations would pick up on it, as I am sure they would be interested to know if Kohl is as coherent as it seems from this letter. Is Pusztaranger around?
And already added to Kohl’s biography on wikipedia!
15:19, 24 March 2014 176.241.49.115 (talk) . . (32,837 bytes) (+206) . . (→Life after politics: In March 2ö14 he wrote a supportive letter to Viktor Orban).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Kohl#Life_after_politics
Unbelievable!
I read the letter as deadpan irony.
Merkel likes Orbán. Her financial supperters does not like him. Do not make the mistake to think in black-and-white terms.
The only institution that may have written such a letter is the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, a political foundation of the german politcal party CDU, represented by its Budapest office (https://www.kas.de/ungarn/de/about/contact/). These two guys are deeply involved with Fidesz and all its subsidiaries (https://www.kas.de/ungarn/de/about/partners/) and make “independent” statements in favour of Orban whenever possible.
By the way: the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung is also involved in the Ukraine, cooperating with George Soros and supporting Vitali Klitschko. This is one of the NGOs Vladimir Putin tried to throw out of Russia due to there permanent meddling in internal issues.
I find it pretty intriguing that the Kohl letter in Hungarian translation was posted on Orban’s facebook page on Febuary 23,whereas according to the date stamp on the German version (original?) was filed one day later, on February 24 by the Prime Minister’s Office (miniszterelnökség).
Good point. I never understood why has KAS been so supportive of Orban?
Is Orban making donations to the Stiftung or the campaigns of local CDU-KAS-related politicians or just paying its Hungarian representatives? Or is KAS genuinely so much in love with Fidesz?
There must be something in this, these KAS people cannot be *that* stupid.
Maybe I’m interpreting too much, but I don’t find that letter “servile”, actually it clearly contains several reminders (or even warnings?) to Orbán and his government!
First there is this “Herausforderungen” aka challenges – which still exist! That means that not everything’s perfect in the state of Hungary …
Then we have words like “wirtschaftliche Entwicklung” and “stabil” which might be interpreted as a reminder not to treat the German companies in Hungary (like EON and the banks) too harshly.
And the most important reminder is about Europe, which in my eyes means more cooperation and reliance on the EU – and not shouting slogans like “We will not be a colony! Down with the EUSSR”.
So the letter can even be interpreted as a warning …
Of course I dont know how it sounds in the Hungarian translation.
Just read the comment on KAS, in my opinion it tries to help conservative Christian politicians, but those should not be confused with those right-wing thugs in Fidesz which surely are not Christians at heart but just opportunists – see their change from liberals to conservatives …
One shouldn’t forget that Adenauer (whose conservative politics I never agreed with, actually I fought the CDU as a young man) also was a strong opponent of Hitler and lost his job as mayor of Cologne after the “Machtergreifung”!
This is fascinating. Since anyone can add to a Wikipedia entry it could easily happen that someone from Orbán’s office made sure that Kohl’s bio is “absolutely” up-to-date, including such an important piece of information as a letter to liebe Viktor.
That would make sense.
Well, well, we should make a good detective team. Pretty talented lot, This is very interesting. I was also surprised by the poor quality of the Hungarian text.
Annotation to KAS: The wording and arguments of this “Kohl”-letter corresponds pretty much to the wording these two KAS-guys in Budapest are using, either in discussions (e.g. http://derstandard.at/1395363150408/Ungarn-Gefahr-einer-gespaltenen-Gesellschaft) or in reports (http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_37053-1522-1-30.pdf) and articles (http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_36448-544-2-30.pdf).
There is no need for Orban to pay the two guys (one is German, the other Hungarian) directly or indirectly, the are very well payed by the German state … and concerning their motivation: due to the KDNP appendix Fidesz is member of the European People´s Party and thus an institutional partner of the CDU.
Here is something about opinions coming out of the Konrad Adenaur Foundation in Budapest:
http://derstandard.at/1395363150408/Ungarn-Gefahr-einer-gespaltenen-Gesellschaft
Ein Brief von Helmut Kohl(?) an „seinen Freund“ Orbán
Bei allem gebotenen Respekt, dieses Schreiben ist einfach nicht zu fassen! Mehr dazu: ein deutscher Politiker (auch kein tragisch schwer erkrankter Altkanzler) kann einfach nicht so uninformiert über die Lage in Ungarn sein! Wer oder Was steht also im Hintergrund?
Siehe und teile die nachfolgende visuelle Ergänzung über das heutige Land der Ahnungslosen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jfOpNP-Frs
re item #11: I need to correct the dates, which were typos. We are talking about March 23 and March 24, obviously. Sorry for the confusion.
I figured it out. 🙂
You can look for the history of the person who added the “Kohl” letter- the user number is 176.241.49.115 and also wrote about László Lovász. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/176.241.49.115
It’s really funny in a way:
That Kohl wrote a letter to Orbán is not mentioned at all in the German wiki!
The last relevant entry there is on Kohl being best man at a homosexual “wedding”! Actually it’s a partnership since the CDU has not allowed weddings for homosexuals, but in (almost) all respects it’s an equivalent.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Kohl
“Im Juli 2013 waren Helmut Kohl und Außenminister Guido Westerwelle Trauzeugen bei der Verpartnerung von Kohls Anwalt Stephan Holthoff-Pförtner und dessen Partner Klaus Sälzer, die am Tegernsee stattfand.”
Former foreign minister Westerwelle is also homosexual and lives in a partnership (he used to take his partner along on trips, even to China!) and that was already known when he became a minister.
PS:
I wonder if that letter will stay in the English wiki …
http://www.utrace.de/?query=176.241.49.115 points to Hungary.
How is the informal style (Duzen) translated?
April 1st is in the offing; I’m with Jean P.
The only newspaper story I have found from outside Hungary about Kohl’s letter to Orban quotes Hungarian Spectrum.
http://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/928261.wahlkaempfer-kohl.html
That’s almost funny!
You know that ND used to be the official paper of the East German communists?
No one in Germany would take this letter for real, but of course in Hungary nobody knows that Kohl is almost brain-dead …
Kohl still outperforms the thinking capacity of the average Fidesz voter…