Perspective of Kohl family

According to Helmut Kohl's son Peter Kohl, Helmut Kohl did not intend to marry Richter and had stated this clearly; "then came the accident and a loss of control," Peter Kohl said, suggesting that Richter had pressured his then seriously ill father into marrying her.^[9]

Peter Kohl said Richter had seemed nervous and hectic the first time they met,^[10] and that she had declared, seemingly in full earnest, that her brother "also is a Kohlian". He had asked her if she said "Korean" and she had loudly proclaimed, "No, no, no, K-O-H-L-I-A-N," and looked at him in a completely disenchanted way.^[11]

In 2011, Peter Kohl managed to visit his father together with his daughter, Leyla Kohl, for the last time. His father had been happy to see them, but after a while he let them know that it would be better if they left before Richter found out, otherwise there would be "great troubles". Peter Kohl speculated that his father was not "able or allowed" to take part in the 10th anniversary commemoration event for Hannelore's death.^[12]

Peter Kohl wrote in the biography of his late mother Hannelore Kohl about the only time he had visited Richter's apartment. "In my male naïveté, I was not prepared for what awaited me there: I had entered a kind of private Helmut Kohl museum," which he described as full of Helmut Kohl photographs and artefacts wherever he looked. "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.^[12]

Kohl became estranged from his two sons and his grandchildren. In 2013, his sons said his new wife kept their father "like a prisoner" and that she prevented them from seeing him for the prior six years.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Kohl's sons later explained that it was unclear whether letters purportedly from their father were actually written by him or Richter, they were not allowed to speak with their father on the telephone and that they were threatened by Richter with police and imprisonment if they tried to visit their parents' house, their own childhood home. They noted that Richter had appropriated their late mother's jewellery, their family heirlooms, and ordered their mother's pictures to be removed from the Kohl family home; "it seemed to be the case that she tried to erase all traces or memories of Hannelore Kohl, her children and grandchildren," Peter Kohl wrote.^[12]

In 2012, Jochen Arntz criticized Kohl-Richter in the Süddeutsche Zeitung for building a "wall" around Helmut Kohl and controlling him; as a result Kohl had also become estranged from many former friends whom she disliked.^[18]

In 2014, Heribert Schwan, Helmut Kohl's biographer, described Richter as "more than conservative, rather German Nationalist" (deutschnational), and said she insists on the right to "interpretational sovereignty" in relation to Kohl's life and that she had insisted on many proven falsehoods.^[19]

Funeral visitation controversy

After Kohl's death, Richter denied Kohl's son Walter Kohl and grandchildren Johannes (son of Walter), aged 20, and Leyla Kohl (daughter of Peter Kohl and his Turkish wife Elif Sözen-Kohl), aged 15, entry to Helmut Kohl's house, the son's childhood home.^[30] Richter asked the police to tell Kohl's son and grandchildren to leave the Kohl family home when they waited outside to pay their respects to their father and grandfather. In a statement to the media, Walter Kohl accused her of "tasteless behaviour".^[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?" and ordered him to be evicted.^[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.^[36]

Controversy over Kohl's funeral

Richter was criticized for trying to take full control of Kohl's funeral. Richter declined a national memorial ceremony in Germany, trying to prevent Chancellor Angela Merkel from speaking at the ceremony in Strasbourg allegedly out of spite for Angela Merkel. 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 Orban, 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."^[31][39] Deutsche Welle noted that "in this case, the word 'family' refers to one person", Maike Kohl-Richter.^[40]

Walter Kohl called the funeral plans unworthy of Kohl's legacy, and called for an act of state in Berlin as desired by most German politicians, and proposed it could take place in front of the Brandenburg Gate.^[41]

The entire Kohl family boycotted Helmut Kohl's funeral and all of the related ceremonies.^[20]