A former President of Germany, Horst Koehler, who served as head of state from 2004 to 2010, is dead.
According to an announcement from officials in the presidency, Koehler passed away on Saturday at the age of 81 following a brief illness.
“Koehler passed away early this morning in Berlin after a short, serious illness surrounded by his family”, the German presidency noted in a statement.
Before rising to the presidency, Köhler had a long record as an efficient behind-the-scenes official.
Starting in the early 1980s, he worked for more than a decade in the Finance Ministry under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who once called him “a treasure” and relied on him in economic diplomacy.
He helped draft the legal framework for Europe’s single currency, the euro, and played a role in negotiating German reunification in 1990.
He later served as president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
In 2000, Köhler emerged as Schröder’s backup choice for the IMF leadership. He won American support after Berlin’s first candidate, Deputy Finance Minister Caio Koch-Weser, was rejected by the United States as too lightweight.
U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow later praised Köhler’s tenure, saying that “he transformed the institution in terms of its transparency … and worked to develop better crisis prevention tools and more effective crisis management.”
Merkel, then Germany’s opposition leader, brought him back to Germany as her surprise choice for the presidency four years later, securing his election by a parliamentary assembly.
Before Koehler’s tenure as german president, he held several prominent international positions, including serving as the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from 2000 to 2004.
Köhler resigned as Germany’s president in 2010 following controversy over remarks he made about Germany’s military engagements.
Horst Köhler was born on February 22, 1943, in Skierbieszów, which was then part of Nazi-occupied Poland.
His family was of German descent and later resettled in Leipzig, East Germany, before fleeing to West Germany in 1953.
Köhler grew up in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg. He studied economics and political science at the University of Tübingen, earning a doctorate in economics in 1977.
In a letter of condolence to Köhler’s wife, Eva Louise, President Steinmeier wrote Saturday that “many people in our country will mourn with you. For in Horst Köhler we have lost a highly esteemed and extremely popular person who achieved great things — for our country and in the world.”
“It was above all his approachability, his infectious laughter and his optimism, his belief in the strength of our country and in the energy and creativity of its people that won him so many hearts. But it was also his often clear and by no means always comfortable admonitions and speeches that won him recognition,” Steinmeier wrote.
Köhler is survived by his wife, daughter Ulrike and son Jochen.
