At a pontifical requiem mass in Speyer Cathedral, many political contemporaries and friends of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl paid him tribute. The mourners included Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bundestag President Norbert Lammert.

On Saturday morning, the first European Ceremony of Honour in the history of the EU was held. The three EU institutions – the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission – hosted the ceremony jointly.

In her address in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Helmut Kohl personified an era. "He helped create the Europe we live in today." East and West Europe are united, with a common market, no border controls and a common currency. "That is inextricably linked with the name of Helmut Kohl," said Angela Merkel.

"You could rely on him," says Chancellor

He brushed many people up the wrong way, but that is no longer important. The Chancellor pointed instead to the things about Helmut Kohl which always impressed her – his feeling for what was politically feasible and the unshakable convictions that guided him. "You could rely on him." He always sought contact with people. He sought to establish and maintain close contacts. He built trust. "He was a world statesman and a man of the people," declared Angela Merkel. He understood how to build bridges and by the end of his term of office he had managed to unite Germany, such that it could live in peace, liberty and friendship with its neighbours.

Dispelling misgivings about a reunified Germany

It was Helmut Kohl who wanted to see Germany reunited, at a time when others were still unsure. His deep European allegiance and the trust he enjoyed worldwide helped dispel the concerns and misgivings about a reunified Germany. "With his partners, he placed German reunification within the framework of European unification. It was a work of peace, a work of liberty and a work of unity."

The Chancellor pointed out that Europe is the work of several generations and that each generation has to find its own answer. It was a question of what made Helmut Kohl stand apart, "Of his understanding of history, his vision, his contact to people, his view of what is feasible and what people can be expected to accept."

Gratitude and humility

At the end of her speech the Chancellor once again recalled that without Helmut Kohl the lives of the people who lived behind the Berlin Wall until 1990 would have been completely different. "Obviously my own life too ". Helmut Kohl, she said, was in no small way responsible for the fact that she was standing there today. "Thank you for the opportunities you gave me. Thank you for the opportunities you opened up for so many other people. Thank you for the opportunities we have been given as Germans and as European, thanks to you," said the Chancellor. She salutes him and his memory in gratitude and humility, she said.

Antonio Tajani says Helmut Kohl was "a courageous man"

The speech of the Chancellor was the last of a total of eight addresses at the European Ceremony of Honour in Strasbourg. First, Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, spoke. He praised Helmut Kohl, who he described as "a courageous man, a representative of liberty and democracy". He held out his hand to the young democracies of Europe. "Helmut Kohl’s Europe was not afraid to offer a future and to shape that future."

Jean-Claude Juncker says that Helmut Kohl seized the opportunity

It was an emotional Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, who took his leave of Helmut Kohl, "a true friend". "Helmut Kohl was a German patriot and a European patriot", said Jean-Claude Juncker. There was for him no contradiction between what is German and what must be European. That is why it was also his wish that the funeral ceremony be European.

Helmut Kohl knew how to seize the mantel of God as it fluttered through history. "He seized the opportunity as it presented, where others would have failed." Alongside his many other achievements, Helmut Kohl looked to Eastern and Central Europe. "He was fully aware of his historical responsibility to Poland, just like Willy Brandt." Jean-Claude Juncker looked back to a moment when he saw Helmut Kohl in tears. It was 13 December 1997, when the European Council agreed to launch enlargement negotiations with the Eastern European states, Malta and Cyprus. He said that this was one of the best moments in his life. "Then the room went quiet, and he cried. And he was not the only one," recalled Jean-Claude Juncker.

Helmut Kohl respected all member states equally, he continued: the large and the small all felt that he understood them. Jean-Claude Juncker again remembered the moment when Helmut Kohl and French President François Mitterrand held hands in Verdun. "They sealed a bond of fraternity between Germany and France." Jean-Claude Juncker saluted the "impressive life achievement" of Helmut Kohl.

Helmut Kohl paved the way for European unification, says Donald Tusk

European Council President Donald Tusk praised Helmut Kohl, who paved the way for European unification. "His vision went beyond the borders of Germany and beyond German interests." Helmut Kohl did much to achieve reconciliation with Poland. He understood that "it was the shipbuilders in Gdansk who were responsible for the first cracks in the Berlin Wall," said Donald Tusk.

"I loved him"

He was followed, in line with the wishes of Helmut Kohl’s widow, and as individuals, by the former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González, the former American President Bill Clinton and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Felipe Gonzaléz described Helmut Kohl as the "driving force behind European unification", and said he had the feeling that he had lost a friend with whom he had had the privilege of sharing historic moments.

Bill Clinton said of the former Chancellor, "I loved him." Helmut Kohl, he said, wanted a world in which cooperation "was seen as better than conflict. He wanted to create a world in which nobody dominated." During his time in politics, the former Chancellor faced huge questions, with ramifications up to today, and it is because of his answers that so many representatives of so many countries were in Strasbourg at the ceremony, underscored Bill Clinton.

The Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev looked back at Helmut Kohl’s close relations to Russia. The former Chancellor saw Russia as an integral part of a united Europe, he said. "For him it was part of a common house, without barbed wire. It was a dream of peace and security for all." Helmut Kohl was a man of the future. "He is also the architect of the world we live in today," said Dmitry Medvedev.

"He stretched out a hand to us," says Emmanuel Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron lauded Helmut Kohl as a great friend of France. "He stretched out a hand to us," said Emmanuel Macron and recalled how the two countries moved together in the 1980s as well as the close relationship between Helmut Kohl and the French President of the time, François Mitterrand. "For my generation, Helmut Kohl is already part of European history." He stressed that he intended to work closely with Germany and with Chancellor Angela Merkel. At the end of his speech he stressed, "Today we have no reason at all to resign. We have every reason to approach the future with realistic optimism."

Funeral procession in Ludwigshafen and Speyer

The European Ceremony of Honour was followed by other ceremonies in Germany on Saturday afternoon and evening.

The coffin carrying the former Chancellor was brought by helicopter to Germany. The funeral procession drove through the centre of Ludwigshafen am Rhein to allow people to pay their last respects. It then continued along the Rhine to Speyer with the ship "MS Mainz" and accompanying vessels.

Requiem mass in the cathedral

In Speyer Cathedral a requiem mass was held. Many political contemporaries and friends of Helmut Kohl attended. The mourners included Federal President Frank-Water Steinmeier, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bundestag President Norbert Lammert. Others were able to follow the ceremony on a screen erected in the cathedral gardens. Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann officiated. The President of the German Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx was a co-celebrant. The Speyer Cathedral choir, the Cathedral organist and the German State Philharmonic Orchestra of Rhineland-Palatinate provided the musical accompaniment to the requiem mass. The coffin stood in front of the high altar, covered with a German flag.

Bishop Wiesemann underlined the "exceptional importance" of Helmut Kohl’s services to Germany, Europe, reconciliation and peace. He called Helmut Kohl a "truly great statesman who loved his home in the Palatinate and his German fatherland". The great gift of German reunification is inextricably linked with his name. For him being a patriot and being a European were two sides of the same coin, said the Bishop.

He pointed out how close Helmut Kohl’s bond was with Speyer Cathedral, which he called his "home church". As Chancellor he brought many state visitors to the Cathedral. Bishop Wiesemann looked at the stations in Helmut Kohl’s life and the importance of the Catholic faith in his work.

As the Cathedral bells tolled, the coffin was carried through the Cathedral to the square in front of the building.

Military tribute and guard of honour

The mass was followed by a military tribute on the square in front of the Cathedral. The military escort comprised soldiers from the guard battalion and the Bundeswehr music corps. Three companies were present, from the army, navy and air force. The guard of honour handed over to eight generals and admirals in Speyer.

This Bundeswehr ceremony is held to honour soldiers or civilians who have a special standing; in the case of soldiers they must hold the rank of at least a commanding general. The last tribute of this sort was held for former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

The guard battalion of the Federal Ministry of Defence, is the oldest battalion of the Bundeswehr and celebrated its 60th anniversary on 15 February 2017. The battalion has a total of around 1,000 soldiers and undertake about 600 protocol-related assignments on average in a year. The three "honorary companies" in Speyer are issued with "Karabiner 98k" rifles. These weapons cannot be fired and are used for purely ceremonial purposes.

After the military tribute, the former Chancellor was buried in a private ceremony attended by close friends and family in the Cathedral chapter cemetery in Speyer’s Adenauer Park.

Visitors may lay flowers and wreaths in two places: at the well in the lower Cathedral garden, which is on the path from the Messeplatz to the southern Cathedral garden, or at the main entrance to the Adenauer Park on the Bahnhofstraße side of the park.