Kohl's unguarded comments

The book, entitled Vermächtnis - die Kohl-Protokolle ("Legacy - the Kohl Transcripts") will be unveiled in Berlin on Wednesday (08.10.2014). It contains Kohl's angriest thoughts - recorded in 2001 and 2002 - about his peers in the Christian Democratic Union, the party he kept in power during his unprecedented 16-year tenure.

The interview revealed how Kohl ridiculed current Chancellor Angela Merkel, the protégé he turned against following the expenses scandal that toppled him in 1999. "Ms Merkel couldn't even hold her fork and knife properly," Kohl, now 84, is quoted as saying. "She hung around at state dinners so that I had to repeatedly tell her to pull herself together."

Dismissing Gorbachev's legacy

He was slightly more generous about Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader credited with helping to bring an end to the Cold War while Kohl oversaw the reunification of Germany in 1989. "Gorbachev's legacy is that he called time on communism, partially against his will, but in fact he finished it off. Without violence. Without bloodshed," he said. "Beyond that I am struggling to think of much else in terms of real legacy."

Kohl believes that the Soviet Union's collapse was more down to its struggling economy than Gorbachev's determination to reform. "Gorbachev looked through the books and had to concede that his game was up, and that he could not prop up the regime," he said.

The unguarded comments have attracted huge media attention in Germany, with some commentators saying they show that Kohl was still bitter about what he saw as his betrayal by his CDU confidantes, and that he had not been sufficiently recognized for his political achievements.

Legal tussle

The new book represents the climax of a long-running row between Kohl and Heribert Schwan, the ghost writer of his memoirs, who conducted over 600 hours of interviews with the former chancellor in 2001 and 2002.

The first three volumes of those memoirs were published from 2004 to 2007. A fourth was planned, but Schwan claims he was sacked after arguing with Kohl over the influence the ex-chancellor's wife Maike Richter was having on the work.

The interview tapes, along with other Kohl documents in Schwan's possession, subsequently became the subject of a legal row. While Kohl and Richter demanded the return of the material, Schwan argued that it was of public interest and should be handed over to a political foundation.

In December 2013, a court in Cologne ruled in Kohl's favor, but Schwan appealed the decision and was able to prepare transcripts before returning them in March this year. It remains unclear whether the publication of the book on Wednesday is legal, though Der Spiegel has already printed excerpts in its current edition.

News magazine Focus reported on Sunday that Kohl's lawyers have already been charged with preventing publication.