Horst Köhler, who became Germany’s president after being a financial engineer behind the reunification of Germany and the creation several decades later of the euro currency, died on Saturday in Berlin. He was 81.

The German president’s office, in a statement on behalf of Mr. Köhler’s family, said he died after a short illness.

Despite having served as managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Köhler was little known politically in Germany before becoming the country’s president in 2004. Yet Mr. he rose to popularity after taking office, serving much of his nearly six years alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Mr. Köhler advocated transforming Germany into “a land of ideas” that would shape its own future and act as a force for good on the global stage. He called for bolder domestic economic reforms, and a more confident position internationally. In his May 2004 acceptance speech, he said that “Germany has to fight for its place in the 21st century.”

But his bold statements, such as questioning whether the unequal living standards in the former East and West Germany could ever be evened out, broke taboos in the German political establishment and came at a cost.

In 2010, a year into his second term, Mr. Köhler resigned abruptly amid a barrage of criticism over remarks he made about German soldiers serving in Afghanistan and on peacekeeping missions. His comments, made during a visit to Afghanistan, that German soldiers were deployed to protect German economic interests, drew ire from political opponents who were calling for the withdrawal of his country’s forces from Afghanistan.

It was the first time in four decades that a German president had quit the post — although his successor, Christian Wulff, would also resign, in his case over accusations of improper ties to businesspeople after less than two years in office.

Mr. Köhler’s exit from the political arena was a political blow to Ms. Merkel, his ally and close friend. The re-election of Mr. Köhler, a member of her Christian Democratic Union party, a year earlier had been considered a show of party solidarity as Ms. Merkel faced her own re-election in a fractured political space.

Horst Köhler was born on Feb. 22, 1943, in Skierbieszow, Poland. He was the seventh of eight children, according to his official biography. During World War II, his family fled Soviet troops, settling in a town near Leipzig, Germany. Nine years later, they fled again after the 1953 East German uprising, an anti-Soviet revolt. They lived in several refugee camps before settling in Ludwigsburg, West Germany.

After completing school and military service, Mr. Köhler studied economics at the University of Tübingen, graduating in 1969. He went on to obtain a Ph.D. in economics from the university in 1977. A year earlier, he had begun working as a civil servant at the economics ministry in Bonn, which was then the capital of West Germany.

As Germany grappled with its reunification in the early 1990s, Mr. Köhler held a senior position in the country’s finance ministry. During that time, he was one of the chief negotiators of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, which created the euro.

From 1993 to 1998, he led the German Savings Bank Association, an umbrella organization that oversees a network of German banks. He then headed the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which helped Germany and other countries transition to an open market at the end of the Cold War. He also served as an adviser to Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Starting in May 2000, Mr. Köhler worked for four years as managing director of the International Monetary Fund, where he endorsed a view of globalization that was more inclusive of developing nations.

Still, he remained relatively unknown to the German public, and in 2004 he became Germany’s president despite not having built a career as a party politician.

After his presidency, he shifted his focus to humanitarian work, through a foundation with his wife, Eva Luise Köhler, that focused on development in Africa and climate change.

Mr. Köhler is survived by his wife; their daughter, Ulrike; a son, Jochen; and four grandchildren.



Source link