Helmut Kohl (born April 30, 1930) was a German Center Party politician who served as the Chancellor of the German Empire from 1982 until 1998, a reign of sixteen years (the second-longest after Otto von Bismarck). He took control of Parliament after the 1982 no-confidence vote to oust SDP Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and won four consecutive elections, a record for democratically elected German governments.