Leading British tributes to the leader who brought about the reunification of Germany, the former prime minister said Mr Kohl was an intensely human man with a mischievous sense of fun.
Kohl became chancellor of West Germany in 1982 and served until 1990, then became chancellor of Germany after reunification.
"We mourn", Kohl's Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) said in a tweet alongside a picture of the late leader.
Germany's longest serving post-war leader Helmut Kohl (right), shown here with Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, has died. Kohl mentored current chancellor Angela Merkel, appointing her minister in 1991.
Angela Merkel, the shy physicist from communist East Germany whom Mr Kohl had plucked from obscurity to join his cabinet after the fall of the Berlin Wall, turned on him at a crucial moment during the scandal, ensuring his exile.
The daily newspaper Bild reported that Kohl died Friday at his home in Ludwigshafen.
Netanyahu says he sends "condolences to the Kohl family and to the German people".
Kohl's first attempt to unseat Social Democratic Chancellor Helmut Schmidt failed in 1976, but Kohl seized his chance six years later, taking power on October 1, 1982 when a junior coalition party switched sides.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker also paid tribute to Kohl.
"The Germans gave Helmut Kohl the nickname "Chancellor of German Unity".
She added Kohl would always be remembered as the architect of Germany's reunification and for his European policy stance.
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His vision was for a reunified Germany that was at the heart of an enlarged European Union and a staunch North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member.
He won voters in bleak communist East Germany by promising them "flourishing landscapes".
By October 1990, Germany was once more - for the first time since World War II - a single country.
"He was not only the father of German reunification, but also an advocate for Europe and the transatlantic relationship".
Immediately after securing the deal Kohl praised the diplomacy of Charles Haughey and Gerry Collins for opening the door to what he described as "the dream of all Germans".
Kohl's 16-year tenure as chancellor stretched from 1982 to 1998.
European Council President Donald Tusk and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also posted their reactions online.
In a memoir, he quoted Thatcher as saying just after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989: "Twice we defeated the Germans!"
Labour former prime minister Tony Blair said: "He was a giant of European as well as German politics, a true statesman and someone who combined practical politics with genuine vision".
In 2008, shortly after his fall, Chancellor Kohl announced his intention to marry a newer companion, Maike Richter, 35 years his junior and a former economic adviser in the chancellery. They had two sons, Peter and Walter.
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