current German foreign minister who helped bring approximately reunification in 1990Hans-Dietrich Genscher,who has died aged 89, was foreign minister of the Federal Republic of Germany for 18 years, and until his surprise resignation in 1992. He had by then held ministerial office continuously for 23 years (having been appointed minister of the interior in 1969). Even when Chancellor Helmut Kohl came to dominate Germany’s political scene,the opinion polls showed that Genscher remained firmly established as his country’s favourite politician. He was among the key figures who restored Germany’s international standing and secured Russian agreement to the unification of Germany in 1990.
He even achieved his own trademark, “Genscherism”, or a term that signified his enduring belief in European unity and the need for east-west co-operation while Europe remained divided; but it also stood for his deceptively informal style of operating,used to great effect to promote his carefully planned, often devious, and strategies.
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Source: theguardian.com