Monday 29 November 2021
No right to compensation
Kohl-Widow goes away empty-handed in the quotes dispute
On behalf of her deceased husband, Maike Kohl-Richter is demanding compensation from the book author Heribert Schwan. But the Federal Court of Justice rejects the request of the former Chancellor’s widow. According to the judges, the million sum is not inheritable.
A compensation of one million euros once awarded to Helmut Kohl does not go to the former chancellor’s widow. Such a claim is fundamentally not inheritable, decided the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). The Karlsruhe judges confirmed a judgment of the Cologne Higher Regional Court (OLG) from 2018. It is therefore legally binding. Only one constitutional complaint is now possible.
Sole heir Kohl-Richter, like her husband, who died in 2017, demanded at least five million euros plus interest from Kohl’s ghostwriter and former confidante Heribert Schwan. The journalist and historian was supposed to write Kohl’s memoir and spoke for hundreds of hours with the former CDU leader at his home in Ludwigshafen.
After three of four planned volumes, however, it broke. In 2014 Schwan published the book “Legacy: The Kohl Protocols” on his own initiative, in which Kohl is quoted with derogatory judgments about politicians and social figures such as former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and ex-CDU General Secretary Heiner Geißler.
The Cologne Regional Court awarded Kohl one million euros in 2017 for violating general personal rights – the highest compensation in German legal history. After the 87-year-old died, Maike Kohl-Richter continued the legal dispute as sole heir.
The BGH partially overturned a second decision, which concerns 116 currently forbidden text passages. The judges declared some of the quotations admissible. The OLG has to re-examine other passages. Both judgments were formally issued as so-called partial judgments. Because the also sued co-author Tilman Jens has died in the meantime, the legal dispute with his heirs is currently interrupted.