Raped by the Russians... the harrowing secret of Mrs Helmut Kohl

By Mail On Sunday Reporter

Last updated at 1:16 AM on 19th June 2011

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The wife of former German chancellor Helmut Kohl was raped at the age of 12 by Russian soldiers, a new biography has revealed.

Hannelore Kohl and her mother were attacked by a Red Army troops after the defeat of Germany in May,1945.

She told author Herbert Schwan how she was 'dumped like a sack of potatoes out of first floor window' after her ordeal.

Power couple: Former chancellor Helmut Kohl and his wife Hannelore who hated being in the spotlight

She never fully recovered from damage to her back and was traumatized for the rest of her life by the sexual assault.

Mrs Kohl was haunted by the 'smell of male sweat, garlic, alcohol and even the sound of spoken Russian.'

Schwan had unrestricted access to her and became her confidante until her death at the age of 68 in 2001.

She committed suicide with a drug overdose after contracting an allergy to light which caused her to lose her hair. She could not even watch television without pain and in the three years leading up to her death did not venture outside of her home.

Haunted: Hannelore, with husband Helmut Kohl, says she could not bear the smell of male sweat after being raped by Russian soldiers, according to a new biography

In The Woman at his side - the life and suffering of Hannelore Kohl, Schwan writes: 'I understood her openness to be her granting me permission to one day publish what she told me.'

The biography paints a despairing picture of her marriage to Kohl, who was conservative politician in the provinces when they met.

Dutiful: Hannalore and her husband meet Tony Blair and his wife Cherie at Number 10 in 1998 ahead of a gala evening

When he became chancellor in 1982, Mrs Kohl hated being in the spotlight so much she banned her two sons from discussing politics.

But the 'unification chancellor' was obsessed and when he decided to run for office again in 1998, she only learned of his decision by watching the news.

Schwan claims that several women friends urged her to divorce him after rumours that he was having an affair with his office manager.

Victors: Red Army soldiers pose for a photograph in Germany after the defeat of the Nazis in May 1945. File picture

By that time her allergic condition - brought on by taking the wrong antibiotics was so bad - that she stayed indoors all day, venturing out only at night.

Her son Walter, 49, wrote a best-seller a few months ago describing his father as cold-hearted after cutting all links with him eight years before.

Kohl, 80 remarried Maike Richter, 35 years his junior, in 2008.

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