Horst Köhler, who became a German president after being Financial Engineer behind the re -unification of Germany and creating several decades later Euro currencydied on Saturday. He was 81 years old.
The German President’s Office, in a statement On behalf of his family, he said that Mr. Köhler had died in Berlin after a brief illness.
Despite being the general director of the International Monetary Fund, he was little known in Germany before becoming the president of the country in 2004. Still, Mr. Köhler climbed popularity after taking over his duty, serving most of his almost six years together with Chancellor Angel Merkel.
Mr. Köhler advocated to convert German into a “country of ideas” that would form her own future and act as a force for good on the global stage. He called for brave domestic economic reforms and more confident positions, Speaking in his speech about accepting in May 2004. that “Germany must fight for its place in the 21st century.”
But his bold statements, such as an examination if uneven living standards on the former Eastern and West Germany can ever equalize, broken taboos In a German political institution and came at a price.
2010, a year of his second term, Mr. Köhler Abruptly resigned In the midst of criticism of the remarks he presented to German soldiers who served in Afghanistan and peaceful missions. His comments, addressed during Afghanistan, that German soldiers were deployed to protect the German economic interests, they pulled out Ira from political opponents who called for the withdrawal of his country from Afghanistan.
The German president left his place for the first time in four decades, though his successor, Christian Wulff, he would also resignIn his case for charges of inappropriate relationships with business people after less than two years in power.
The exit of Mr. Köhler from the political arena was a political blow to Mrs. Merkel, his allies and a close friend. Mr. Köhler’s re -election, a member of her party of the Christian Democratic Union, was a year earlier was considered an exhibition of a solidarity party As Mrs. Merkel faced her own re -choice in a broken political space.
Horst Köhler was born on February 2, 1943 in Skierbieszów, Poland, seventh of eight children, according to his official biography. During World War II, his family fled from Soviet troops, residing in a city near the German city of Leipzig. Nine years later, they Escaped again after 1953 East German uprising, anti-Soviet rebellion. They lived in several refugee camps before they settled in Ludwigsburg, West Germany.
After completing his school and military service, he studied economics at the University of Tübingen, graduating in 1969. He continued his PhD in Economics at the University of 1977. A year earlier, he started working as a civil servant to the Ministry of Economics in Bonn, which was a German capital at the time.
While Germany struggled with her re -unification in the early 1990s, Mr. Köhler held a higher position in the Ministry of Finance in the country. During that time, he was one of the main negotiators The 1992 Maastricht contract, which created the Euro currency.
From 1993 to 1998 he led the German Savings Bank Association, an umbrella that oversees the network of German banks, and then led by reconstruction and development at the head of the European Bank, which assisted Germany and other countries to go to the open market at the end of the Cold War . Served as well as counselor to Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Starting May 2000, Mr. Köhler He worked for four years as the General Director of the International Monetary Fundwhere he supported the globalization view that included development nations.
Still, he stayed relatively unknown In 2004, he became a German president in 2004, although he did not build a career as a party politician.
After his presidency, he transferred the focus to humanitarian work, through the foundation with his wife, Eva Luise Köhler, who focused on developing development in Africa and climate change.
Mr. Köhler survives his wife; Their daughter of Ulrika; Son, Jochen; and four grandchildren.
