Maike Kohl-Richter

Maike Kohl-Richter (née Richter; born April 1964) is best known as the second wife of the former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl from 2008 until his death in 2017.

[1] She is controversial in Germany for her right-wing anti-immigrant views and support for Viktor Orbán, and for her public feud with Kohl's children and grandchildren.

[7] At the time Richter was 44 years old and Helmut Kohl, then aged 78, was hospitalized in "critical condition" with serious head trauma, and was barely able to speak.

Peter Kohl speculated that his father was not "able or allowed" to take part in the 10th anniversary commemoration event for Hannelore's death.

"The whole thing looked like the result of staggering, meticulous collecting for the purpose of hero worship, as we know it from reports on stalkers,"[13] an unhealthy obsession with his father.

[25] Der Spiegel noted that "Maike Kohl-Richter wants to control the political legacy of Helmut Kohl.

"[26] Spiegel editor and Kohl expert Jan Fleischhauer has accused Richter of "stealing the Chancellor" from the people with her insistence on having "the sole decision-making power" over his legacy.

[27] The Swiss paper Der Bund wrote that she had been called "Kohl's ventriloquist" and "family destroyer" in public, and that she was "reviled and demonized" in Germany.

[31][32][33] When Kohl's former driver, personal assistant over 46 years and close friend Eckhard Seeber wanted to sign the condolence book and Richter became aware of his presence she screamed, "Who let you in?"

[34] The scene was repeated when Kohl's nephew, Harald Getrey, wanted to pay his respects to his uncle and was evicted by Richter.

[35] While Richter barred Kohl's children and grandchildren and other blood relatives from paying their respects to their father and grandfather in their own family home, she had let streams of her own friends see the body, and her friend, the former tabloid journalist Kai Diekmann, is a permanent presence "loitering" in the house, promoting Richter.

Instead, Richter wanted the controversial Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has fiercely criticized Merkel's refugee policy, to speak; she only relented when told it would cause a scandal.

[37][1][31][38] Reuters noted that "many questioned whether it was really an increasingly frail Kohl who was close to Orbán, a nativist critic of Merkel's open-doors refugee policy" or whether it was actually Richter.

[32] Richter's attempt to control the European Union ceremony was criticized in a speech by the President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert, where he said that "with all due respect, the way and the place in which this outstanding political lifetime achievement ... is honoured are more than a family affair.