They wed in 1960 when Mr Kohl was already an up-and-coming politician though nobody could predict how high he was

They wed in 1960, when Mr Kohl was already an up-and-coming politician, though nobody could predict how high he was to rise.She was educated, a qualified interpreter in French and English. But she had no qualms in throwing it all away, and effortlessly slipping into the demure role of the traditional German housewife. Henceforth, her calling was to the three “Ks” – “Kinder, K?, Kirche” – children, kitchen, church. They had two sons, and Hannelore produced cookery books, the latest of which won an award in France; though perhaps not for its recipes.As first lady, a role she had to endure for 16 years, she stayed in the background, emerging only for official functions.

When not baking cakes, she devoted her energies to a charity looking after people injured in accidents. In this job, she was the very opposite of a Princess Diana: she worked hard and ducked the publicity.Politicians yesterday paid warm tribute, one saying: “Hannelore Kohl will be remembered as a woman who fought for the rights of others. She gave many people courage.” Including her troubled husband.When Mr Kohl was finally defeated in the 1998 elections, she took the news phlegmatically: “We survived the Second World War. We shall cope with this.” But the tribulations of the Kohl family were about to begin.Mr Kohl bought an apartment in Berlin, commuting between work and the family home in southern Germany, which the former chancellor soon had to mortgage to pay certain debts to the party.She did not follow.

Thus, when the sleaze scandal erupted in the autumn of 1999, the “Chancellor of German Unity” lived in separation from his wife, and had to face the music alone. “I stand by my man,” Mrs Kohl declared, laughing again in the face of adversity. But she was soon imprisoned in her home, and Mr Kohl was getting too busy with lawyers to fly south regularly.In his time as chancellor, the German public learnt, Mr Kohl had amassed slush funds from unknown sources. To defend his actions, he fought back against his colleagues, sometimes with politically dirty means.Hannelore Kohl watched her husband gain weight but shrink in political stature.