Report: former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has died

Jessica Durando | USA TODAY

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has died, German newspaper Bild reported. He was 87.

The architect of German reunification served as chancellor from 1982 to 1988. During that time, Kohl was the first chancellor after the fall of the Berlin Wall and a driving force behind the introduction of the European single currency. He convinced skeptical Germans to give up the Deutsche Mark, Reuters reported.

In 1989, Kohl proposed to reunite Germany. The reunification occurred in October 1990, according to Sputnik News. Kohl had been frail and in a wheelchair since suffering a bad fall in 2008, Reuters reported.

Kohl was born on April 3, 1930, in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany.