Helmut Kohl is the first chancellor of a united Germany. Many now favor him for president of a united Europe (in Spain, 85% of voters polled chose him). Having outlasted those with whom be oversaw the end of the Cold War - Reagan, Gorbachev, Bush, Thatcher, Mitterrand - he is arguably the world's most influential leader. Kohl: Genius of the Present is the first biography of Kohl available in English.

Helmut Kohl has become Germany's "best advertisement." In Israel, universities have awarded him honorary doctorates; the French rate him (with Nelson Mandela) as the world's leading statesman; weeping Russian women called his name during a recent Moscow visit. Those with the bitterest memories of Germany see in Kohl something new. This is captured in author Karl Hugo Pruys's precise yet evocative language.

With over 100 photographs, many surprisingly candid, this book gives the reader the whole man and the experiences that shaped him - from the boyhood trauma of a beloved brother's death during the war, to the long struggle through a decade of Social Democratic rule that prepared him to become one of the world's most durable leaders.