Former German President Horst Köhler has died at the age of 81, the Federal Presidential Office in Berlin announced, following a short and severe illness. Köhler was elected as the head of state on May 23, 2004 and re-elected five years later. He resigned from office on May 31, 2010.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid tribute to the deceased in a condolence letter to Köhler’s widow, Eva Luise Köhler, describing him as “a blessing for our country”. Steinmeier noted, “We can only be deeply grateful that we got to experience Horst Köhler as the ninth President of the Federal Republic of Germany. He gave a lot to this country.”
Köhler was the first non-party politician to hold the office of President. After studying economics, he began a career in the public sector in 1976 at the Federal Ministry of Economics and later became State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance, led by Theo Waigel. Köhler was also the chief negotiator for the Maastricht Treaty on the European Monetary Union.
Three years later, he transitioned to the financial sector, initially as the president of the German Savings and Giro Association and later as the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. In 2000, he became the head of the International Monetary Fund.
In 2004, Köhler was elected as the successor to Johannes Rau and in 2009, the Federal Convention re-elected him. His resignation with immediate effect a year later was unprecedented in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The trigger for his resignation was an interview on the Deutschlandradio Kultur, in which Köhler justified the deployment of German troops abroad, including in Afghanistan, citing the protection of German economic interests. Critics accused him of justifying the war by mentioning economic interests, which Köhler denied. Although he had only restated the country’s defense policy guidelines, which mention access to resources and the protection of trade routes, Köhler saw his office irreparably damaged by the criticism and chose to step down.