The former German chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl is not known for his love of Turkey. "Turks treat the Kurds as we wouldn't have the right to treat animals", he once said. But last week Dr Kohl had to swallow his words and master others, in particular the words "tesekkuer ederim", the Turkish for "thank you".
He travelled to Istanbul and honoured Turkish custom by asking the Turkish industrialist, Mr Kemal Sozen, for the hand of his daughter, Elif, in marriage on behalf of his son, Mr Peter Kohl.
After receiving Mr Sozen's consent, Dr Kohl slipped rings on the future bride's and groom's fingers. "I am giving these rings for the happiness of our children. I believe they will be very happy", said Dr Kohl after a traditional ceremony at the home of the future bride's parents.
Dr Kohl has never been loved by Germany's two million strong Turkish population, by far the country's largest ethnic minority. That would explain the smug tone of Germany's Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet, when it broke the news of the wedding, expected to take place next April.
Reaction in the mainstream German media was overwhelmingly positive. The mass circulation newspaper Bild printed a picture of Dr Kohl with his future in-laws saying: "This photograph will do more for Turkish-German relations than a thousand state visits."
Newspapers in Turkey have been expecting the wedding for over three years, but said an official announcement was being held back until Dr Kohl's political difficulties had passed.
Peter Kohl met Elif Sozen 11 years ago when they were both studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ms Sozen (32) works for the investment bank J.P. Morgan and lives in London with Mr Kohl (35), who works at for a Swiss bank.
News of the wedding comes at the end of a humiliating year for Dr Kohl. The self-anointed "reunification chancellor" spent most of this year watching as his reputation was destroyed by an ongoing investigation into illegal political fund-raising in his Christian Democratic Union party.
Last October he was persona non grata at the official ceremony to mark ten years of German unification, what he considers his greatest political achievement.
