What happened
The scandal centred on secret accounts, including one run by the CDU's Hesse branch in Switzerland holding nearly DM 21 million in undeclared funds. Kohl admitted the system existed and that he had personally overseen parts of it, but refused throughout to identify who the anonymous donors were, citing a personal 'word of honour' he claimed outranked German disclosure law.
Prosecutors closed the case in 2001 after Kohl paid a fine, avoiding trial. The episode did lasting damage to the CDU's ability to present itself as a party of institutional probity — a credibility it would need decades later when trying to argue it, rather than the AfD, represented legitimate conservative politics in Germany.