Horst Köhler, Former German President and I.M.F. Leader, Dies at 81

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Mr. Köhler held the ceremonial post of German president after a finance-focused career. Shortly into his second term, he became the first German president in four decades to resign.

Horst Köhler standing at a lectern in front of a German flag.
Horst Köhler, then president of Germany, in Leipzig in 2009.Credit…Pool photo by Norman Rembarz

Lynsey Chutel

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. He was 81.

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

Despite having served as managing director of the International Monetary Fund, he was little known politically in Germany before becoming the country’s president in 2004. Yet Mr. Köhler 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, saying in his May 2004 acceptance speech 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 cost.

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Mr. Köhler with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin in 2009.Credit…Florian Seefried/Getty Images

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