Maike Kohl-Richter

In 2014, Heribert Schwan, Helmut Kohl's biographer, described Richter as "more than conservative, rather German National", and said she insists on the right to "interpretational sovereignty" in relation to Kohl's life and that she has insisted on many proven falsehoods.

As a result of Kohl-Richter's behaviour, the entire Kohl family—his children and grandchildren—boycotted Helmut Kohl's funeral and all the related ceremonies. Die Welt commented that Kohl-Richter never was recognised as a proper member of the Kohl family, neither by the Kohl family itself nor by German society.

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. 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. 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.

In 2011, Peter Kohl had 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.

Per Richter, Helmut Kohl had started introducing her as his "new life-partner" in 2005. They married on 8 May 2008, seven years after the suicide of Kohl's widely respected first wife Hannelore Kohl. At the time Richter was 44 years old and Helmut Kohl, then aged 78, was hospitalized in "critical condition" with serious head trauma, and was barely able to speak. For the duration of their marriage, Helmut Kohl was impaired by brain damage, had difficulty speaking and was wheelchair-bound.

She joined the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in Bonn as economy ministry aide heading the department for regional economic policy, urban development and regional planning. In 2004, she vacationed at a beach resort in Sri Lanka, and survived the massive 2004 tsunami. She left her job only in 2008 after she had married Helmut Kohl.

Richter attended a Protestant high school ("Gymnasium") and joined the CDU's youth wing, the Junge Union, while still attending school. She was noticed by Dirk Metz, district Chairman: "She was a perky one, with short cut hair - a stunner." and became committee member of the district executive Siegen-Wittgenstein. She attended Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and earned a doctorate in economics in 1996. Friends remember she wanted to become at least state secretary ("mindestens Staatssekretärin"). Her elder sister and a brother became physicians.

From 1994 to 1998, Richter worked as a junior speechwriter at the German Chancellery when Helmut Kohl was in power. She left after he lost the election and briefly worked as an adviser to Friedrich Merz, member of the Bundestag for the CDU. Thereafter she was a business journalist for Wirtschaftswoche for one year.

Maike Kohl-Richter (born April 1964 in Siegen, née Richter) was the second wife of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl from 2008 to 2017. She is controversial in Germany for her right-wing anti-immigrant views and support for Viktor Orbán, and for her public feud with Kohl's children and grandchildren. She has been accused of hijacking Kohl's legacy and "has been criticised by Mr Kohl’s own children for allegedly hero-worshipping the former chancellor and being obsessed" with him. She was criticized by German media, public figures and the Kohl family after Kohl's death.

Richter was born April 1964 in a village near Freudenberg in Siegerland, to Evelyn and Wolfgang Richter. She grew up the third of 4 children in Oberheuslingen. Her father was an engineer working for RWE in Siegen. Her mother was a local reporter at the local newspaper, the "Siegener Zeitung". Her mother described her daughter in a biographical novel as "a child face like out of a children’s book, joyous, unrestrained and totally without problems".