Helmut Kohl

Kohl came to power in 1982 because the Free Democrats switched sides mid-parliament, and he then kept that partnership with Hans-Dietrich Genscher's party for sixteen years. Leaving the foreign ministry in Genscher's hands was the key bargain, and the two together steered German reunification in 1990 and the Maastricht Treaty. The long coalition also ran out of reforming energy in the 1990s, and the party financing scandal that broke after he left office badly damaged his reputation.