Hannelore Kohl
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Hannelore Kohl (March 7, 1933 – July 5, 2001) was the wife of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. She met him for the first time at a prom in Ludwigshafen, Germany when she was 15 years old.
She was born in Berlin as Hannelore Renner. In the years of her husband's chancellorship, she founded the Hannelore Kohl Stiftung and the Kuratorium ZNS.
On July 5, 2001, she was found dead in her Ludwigshafen home. Hannelore Kohl had apparently committed suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills, after years of suffering from what she claimed was a very rare and painful photo allergy that was induced by an earlier penicillin treatment and had forced her to practically avoid all sunlight for years.
However, no postmortem was performed, and some specialists have cast doubt on the official explanation, noting that her claimed symptoms did not match those of any known skin disease. Furthermore, she had never sought treatment from top dermatologists for her unspecified ailment, and she had been spotted in the outdoor sun at various times.
At the same time, she failed to attend her son's wedding in Turkey, six weeks before her death, even though it could have been held after sundown or indoors.
It has been speculated, in particular in the British press, that she was suffering instead from depression, exacerbated by her husband's involvement in party finance scandals and his failure to retire from politics after being ousted as chancellor in 1998. Instead, he stayed on as a back-bencher and followed the government as it moved from Bonn to Berlin.
She is known for her famous collection of German-style cooking recipes published as "Kulinarische Reise durch Deutsche Lande" (Culinary Journey through German regions) which was published in 1996.de:Hannelore Kohl nl:Hannelore Kohl no:Hannelore Kohl