Horst Kohler, former German president and IMF leader, dies at 81

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 Saturday in Berlin. He was 81.

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

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

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 Germany 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, 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.

Horst Köhler was born 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 Köhler’s 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.

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