A court in Cologne banned further passages of a book of revelations about former German chancellor Helmut Kohl as part of an ongoing legal dispute.
Affected are not only quotes from Kohl, but also descriptions and assessments by the author Heribert Schwan, who had previously worked as a ghostwriter for Kohl, the Cologne Higher Regional Court stated on Tuesday.
Although witnesses such as Kohl's son Walter had confirmed in the previous court proceedings that Kohl had not entered into a written confidentiality agreement with Schwan, the court assumed that confidentiality was implied because Schwan had worked for Kohl.
A well-known broadcast journalist and historian, Schwan had written Kohl's memoirs together with him as a ghostwriter in the early 2000s. Schwan recorded long accounts of Kohl's political life on tape.
However, before writing the last volume of the memoirs, the two had a falling out.
Schwan then published the book "Vermächtnis: Die Kohl-Protokolle" ("Legacy: The Kohl Protocols"), which included unauthorized statements by the former chancellor, in particular drastic value judgements about other politicians.
Kohl then sued Schwan. He argued that the comments published by Schwan were never intended for the public. Since his death in 2017, the proceedings have been continued by his widow Maike Kohl-Richter.
Kohl is considered one of the most important chancellors in German history, primarily due to his services to German reunification and European unification.
Schwan was disappointed by the decision on Tuesday. "If I had been asked to remain silent, I would have run away," he told dpa.
From a journalistic point of view, it is "inconceivable" that even quotes have now been banned that do not relate to statements by Helmut Kohl, but rather to assessments of him, Schwan asserted.
