Before he became a cabinet minister, Kinkel had long been a leading civil servant in Germany. He knew the government apparatus better than anyone else. Still, he attached great importance to not being a typical professional politician. In response to criticism of his style, he replied that he did not hide the fact that he could be very direct sometimes.

He was discovered in 1970 by leading political figure Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FDP), who saw to it that Kinkel became head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service (BND) in 1979. Kinkel steered the BND for four years. He then served as justice minister under Chancellor Helmut Kohl (CDU) before he succeeded Genscher as Germany’s foreign minister.

Kinkel led the Foreign Office for more than six years. These were the years after the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the years before September 11. Later he once said: "The world was not in order at that time. But it seemed to be." His years in office saw the genocide in Rwanda and the massacre of 8000 Bosnians in Srebrenica.

One of the biggest provocations of his time in office was that Kinkel fell in the Dalai Lama's arms when he was about to put one of his white silk scarves around his neck during a visit to Bonn in 1995. Nobody spoke afterwards about the fact that he was the first German Foreign Minister to receive the head of the Tibetans despite the resistance from China.

The scene was perhaps typical: Kinkel wanted to be sincere and straightforward. He was perceived as insensitive and rugged. As well, he had to struggle with the fact that after all the Genscher years, foreign policy was increasingly made in the Chancellery.

Kinkel served in the German parliament until 2002 and later worked as a lawyer. He was also chair of the Deutsche Telekom Foundation for a few years. He played tennis, went running and skiing until he was very old. Most recently, he lived in Sankt Augustin near Bonn.

Only rarely did he give interviews, even more rarely did he say anything about current world politics. In one of his last interviews, with the German edition of the "Huffington Post", he complained last year: "The world power America has become a gigantic factor of unrest under Trump. It would be frightening and laughable if it weren't so sad.”

Most of the time, however, such conversations were more about the more fundamental things. He once said: "Even as the foreign minister of a large country, you only have limited opportunities to deal with the problems of the world. I, for one, have become rather humbled as foreign minister."

Orig. text: dpa

Translation: ck