He succeeded in unifying Germany after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall despite resistance from Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the architect of German reunification, died on Friday, the mass-selling newspaper Bild reported. He was 87.

Bild reported in its online edition that Mr. Kohl died in the morning in his home in Ludwigshafen, in western Germany.

“We mourn,” Kohl’s Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) tweeted with a picture of the former chancellor.

Germany's longest serving post-war chancellor from 1982 to 1998, Kohl was a driving force behind the introduction of the euro currency, convincing sceptical Germans to give up their cherished deutschemark.

For united Europe

An imposing figure who formed a close relationship with French President Francois Mitterrand in pushing for closer European integration, Kohl had been frail and wheelchair-bound since suffering a bad fall in 2008. At home, he is celebrated above all as the father of German reunification, which he achieved after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

Shortly after leaving office, Kohl’s reputation was tarnished by a financing scandal in the CDU, now led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, his protégé.