Archives: Thatcher opposed unified Germany

LONDON, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was strongly opposed to the reunification of East and West Germany, secret French files show.

The Times of London reported France revealed documents Thursday that describe Thatcher was particularly concerned at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall about how reunification would impact then-West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

"Kohl is capable of anything," Luc de La Barre de Nanteuil, then France's ambassador to Britain, quoted Thatcher of saying in March 1990.

"He has become a different man, he does not know himself any more, he sees himself as the master and begins to act like that."

The documents, unsealed by Elysee Palace in honor of the 20th anniversary of the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, also portray Thatcher, a staunch conservative nicknamed the Iron Lady, as a leader who possibly relied too much on her instincts.

"She wanted to be right and be right on all points, even when her worry did not suggest any solution. She was, as always, convinced that her instinct was right," Nanteuil said in the documents.