Horst Köhler

Köhler was born in Skierbieszów (then named Heidenstein), in the General Government area of German-occupied Poland, as the seventh child of Elisabeth and Eduard Köhler, into a family of Bessarabian Germans from Rîșcani in Romanian Bessarabia (near Bălți, present-day Moldova).^[3] Horst Köhler's parents, ethnic Germans and Romanian citizens, had to leave their home in Bessarabia in 1940 during the Nazi-Soviet population transfers that followed the invasion of Poland and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which awarded Bessarabia to the Soviet Union. As part of the Generalplan Ost, they were resettled in 1942 at Skierbieszów, a village near Zamość, Poland (then part of the General Government).^[3] As the Wehrmacht was pushed back and the first parts of Poland had to be abandoned in 1944, the Köhler family fled to Leipzig. In 1953, they left the Soviet Zone – via West Berlin – to escape from the communist regime. The family lived in refugee camps until 1957, when they settled in Ludwigsburg. Horst Köhler hence spent most of his first 14 years as a refugee.^[3]

A teacher recommended that the refugee boy Köhler should apply for the Gymnasium, and Köhler took his Abitur in 1963.^[4] After two years of military service at a Panzergrenadier battalion in Ellwangen, he left the Bundeswehr as Leutnant der Reserve (Reserve Lieutenant).^[5] He studied and finally gained a doctorate in economics and political sciences from the University of Tübingen, where he was a scientific research assistant at the Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung [de] from 1969 to 1976.^[6][7]

Köhler joined the civil service in 1976, when he was employed in the Federal Ministry of Economics. In 1981, he was employed in the Staatskanzlei des Landes Schleswig-Holstein (chancellery of the state government of Schleswig-Holstein) under Minister-president Gerhard Stoltenberg.^[4] On 1 October 1982, Helmut Kohl (CDU) became Chancellor of Germany. He formed the First Kohl cabinet. Upon Stoltenberg's recommendation (who was Federal Finance Minister in Kohl's first, second and third cabinet until 21 April 1989), Köhler was made head of Stoltenberg's office in the Federal Ministry of Finance. Köhler rose to Director General for financial policy and federal industrial interests in 1987. In 1989 he became Director General for currency and credit.^[4]

A member of the CDU from 1981, Köhler was Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry of Finance from 1990 to 1993, and as such, the administrative head of the Ministry and the deputy of the Federal Minister of Finance (Theodor Waigel). In that capacity, he served as a "sherpa" (personal representative) for Chancellor Helmut Kohl, preparing G7 summits and other international economic conferences. As secretary of state, Köhler negotiated both the German–German monetary union^[8] and the final withdrawal of Soviet troops from the GDR in 1994.^[9] In addition, he was chief negotiator for the Maastricht Treaty on European Monetary Union, which led to the creation of the euro as the Union's single currency.^[10]

Köhler also played a central role in organizing the enormously expensive privatization of state businesses (VEB) in Eastern Germany. He organized the Treuhand, the agency charged with selling 11,000 aged and moribund VEBs.^[11]

Between 1993 and 1998 he served as president of the association of savings banks in Germany, Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband.^[12]

In September 1998 Köhler was appointed president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and settled in London, where the headquarters of the bank is located. The EBRD then was facing annual losses of US$305 million, largely due to the 1998 Russian financial crisis. He took stock of the situation, then began to refocus the EBRD's notoriously lax investment policies and tighten up on opulence at the bank itself.^[13] At the same time, he was widely reputed to clash with his American vice president, Charles Frank, and other EBRD officials reportedly complained about his temper and management style.^[14]

Köhler was appointed managing director and Chairman of the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2000. The government of Gerhard Schröder nominated him after their first nominee, Caio Koch-Weser, was rejected by the United States.^[15] Though respected, Köhler was not a particularly well known or prestigious figure in international financial circles.^[16] At the time, he was one of three candidates for the IMF position, with Japan having put forward its former deputy finance minister Eisuke Sakakibara and several African nations backing Stanley Fischer.^[17]

In one of his first moves at the IMF, Köhler joined British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in hosting a gathering of anti-poverty activists to discuss an international campaign to write off billions of dollars in debts that developing nations owe the IMF, World Bank and other government creditors.^[18]

Before entering the office of managing director, Köhler had spent time in Indonesia during the 1997 Asian financial crisis and thereafter cited it as an example of the fund's tendency towards intrusive micromanagement.^[19] Instead, he intended to focus the Fund primarily on broad economic management and to reduce overlapping activity with the World Bank.^[20] Shortly after taking office in May 2000, he established the Financial Sector Review Group under the leadership of John Lipsky to provide an independent perspective on the Fund's work on international financial markets, In March 2001, on the group's recommendations, he created the International Capital Markets Department, a unit to anticipate and head off financial crises in countries to which the fund makes loans.^[21]

In 2001, Köhler recommended naming Timothy Geithner to replace Stanley Fischer as deputy managing director; instead, the US government under President George W. Bush successfully pushed for Anne O. Krueger to take the position.^[22]

In order to accept his nomination as presidential candidate, Köhler left the IMF a year before his term was scheduled to end in May 2005. Among his accomplishments were overseeing debt crises in Brazil and Turkey and expanding debt relief for the world's poorest countries. He had less success resolving the continuing debt problems in Argentina.^[23]

He lived in Washington, D.C., from 2000 to 2004.^[24]

On 4 March 2004, Köhler resigned his post with the IMF after being nominated by Germany's conservative and liberal opposition parties (CDU/CSU and FDP) as their presidential candidate.^[25] As these parties controlled a majority of votes in the Bundesversammlung ("Federal Assembly": an electoral college consisting of the membership of the Bundestag and an equal number of delegates appointed by the legislatures of each state), the result of the vote amounted to essentially a foregone conclusion, but was closer than expected. Köhler defeated Gesine Schwan on the first ballot by 604 votes to 580; 20 votes were cast for minor candidates.^[26] Köhler succeeded Johannes Rau as president on 1 July 2004, for a five-year term. Germany's presidency is a largely ceremonial office, but is also invested with considerable moral authority. From 2004 until early 2006, Charlottenburg Palace was the seat of the President of Germany, whilst Schloss Bellevue was being renovated.^[27]

Upon his election, Köhler, a conservative German patriot, said that "Patriotism and being cosmopolitan are not opposites." Die Welt wrote, "He appeared an enlightened patriot who genuinely loves his country and is not afraid to say so". Presenting his visions for Germany, Köhler also said that "Germany should become a land of ideas", and emphasized the importance of globalization, and that Germany would have to compete for its place in the 21st century. Domestically, President Köhler became concerned with the question of how to preserve and create jobs in an internationally competitive environment.^[28]

During his presidency, Köhler gained a reputation for regularly voicing his opinion on foreign policy matters. He called for "globalization with a human face" and became a strong advocate of poverty eradication.^[29] In his inaugural speech, Köhler had set his focus on a "fair partnership with Africa" which he described as a question of European self-respect:

In my view, the humanity of our world can be measured against the fate of Africa. Do Europe's self-respect, its foundations, values and history, not require it to play an honest and generous role in Africa?^[30]

Throughout his six years as president, Köhler "worked hard to put Africa on the top of Germany's political agenda", according to Deutsche Welle.^[31] One of his trademark projects was the Partnership with Africa initiative, which brought together heads of state, entrepreneurs, intellectuals and students from Africa and Europe to create a "dialogue of equals".^[32] Through unapologetic criticism of both Europe's negligence of the African continent and of sensitive issues in African politics, including corruption, Köhler gained wide popularity across Africa.^[33]

On the eve of his resignation, Köhler presented his book Schicksal Afrika,^[34] an edited volume on the continent's future with contributions from 41 authors, including former African presidents Thabo Mbeki and John Kufuor as well as Nobel Prize Literature Laureate Wole Soyinka.^[35]

By the summer of 2005, he was Germany's most popular political figure, with an approval rating of 72 percent, according to a poll published in Der Spiegel.^[36]

In July 2005, he dissolved the Bundestag at Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's request, after the latter had lost a motion of confidence.^[37] This led to an early Bundestag election in September 2005.^[37]

In August 2005, Köhler attended the memorial ceremony for Brother Roger, the founder of the Taizé Community, an ecumenical monastic community in Burgundy.^[38]

In October 2006, Köhler made a far-reaching decision by vetoing the bill which would transfer Germany's Air Safety Administration Deutsche Flugsicherung into private ownership. The Bundestag passed this legislation but as president, Köhler was authorized not to sign it into law if, in his opinion, it contravened the constitution.^[39] In December 2006 he did not sign the Consumer Information Law (which intended to make information collected by public food safety agencies available to consumers), because the constitution does not allow the federal government to instruct municipal authorities. This can only be done by the nation's states.^[40] There had only been six previous occasions when Germany's president had chosen to reject bills and in most instances less important legislation had been involved. His vetoes were the first notable examples in recent German history.^[41]

In March 2007, Köhler turned down a politically contentious request for clemency by Christian Klar, a terrorist from the far-left Red Army Faction. His meeting with Klar had drawn protests from conservative politicians, who said Klar had shown no remorse for his crimes. The president also denied clemency to another member, Birgit Hogefeld.^[42]

In his 2007 Christmas address to the nation, Köhler urged the government (First Merkel cabinet) to push ahead more quickly with reforms. He was also critical of the introduction of the minimum wage in the postal sector (which had led to the loss of 1,000 jobs at Deutsche Post rival PIN Group), stating that "a minimum wage that cannot be paid by competitive employers destroys jobs".^[43]

On 22 May 2008, Köhler announced his candidacy for a second term as president. On 23 May 2009, he was re-elected by the Federal Assembly,^[44] and was sworn into office for a second term on 1 July 2009.

After leaving office, Köhler continued to voice his opinion on selected foreign and domestic policy matters, most notably on Europe–Africa relations, the global fight against poverty and climate change as well as on the need for a new spirit of global partnership.^[55]

Between 2010 and 2011, Köhler served as member of the Palais-Royal Initiative, a group convened by Michel Camdessus, Alexandre Lamfalussy and Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa to reform the international monetary system.^[56]

From 2012 to 2013, Köhler served on the United Nations' High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, which was co-chaired by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, and Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom.^[57] The advisory board was established by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to shape the global development agenda beyond 2015, the target date for the Millennium Development Goals. The Panel produced a final report with recommendations and thereby contributed in the making of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by all UN member states in September 2015.^[58]

Within Germany, Köhler was widely regarded as one of the country's most experienced experts on Africa, although he himself publicly rejected this label, saying in his speech "On the impossibility of speaking of Africa": "The more I learned about Africa, the more I realized how much there still was to learn".^[59]

On several occasions, Köhler officially represented Germany as former president. Köhler took part in Namibia's 25th Independence Day festivities and represented Germany at President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta's inauguration ceremony in Mali the same year.^[60] Beginning in 2016, Köhler co-chaired, together with former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a Special Panel of the African Development Bank (AfDB).^[61]

In 2017, Köhler was appointed by Secretary-General António Guterres as his new special envoy for Western Sahara, in charge of restarting talks between Morocco and the Polisario independence movement over the disputed territory.^[62] In that capacity, Köhler invited the foreign ministers of Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania as well as the secretary general of the Polisario Front in late 2018 for a meeting in Geneva to broker a settlement over the territory;^[63] this marked the first time in six years that the involved parties met for negotiations. In 2019, he left his post on health grounds.^[64]

Köhler also worked for numerous charities and non-profit organizations, and held a honorary professorship at the University of Tübingen, his alma mater.^[65] After his retirement from German and European politics, he held a variety of positions, including:

• Scope Foundation, Member of the Honorary Board (as of 2020)^[66]
• Aktion Deutschland Hilft (Germany's Relief Coalition), Patron^[67]
• Club of Madrid, Member^[68]
• Deutsche Nationalstiftung, Chairman of the Senate
• Friedrich August von Hayek Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees^[69]
• Hermann Kunst-Stiftung zur Förderung der neutestamentlichen Textforschung, chairman of the Board of Trustees^[70]
• Friede Springer Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees (as of 2011)^[71]
• Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), Member of the Board of Trustees^[72]
• Wittenberg Center for Global Ethics, Member of the Board of Trustees (as of 2011)^[73]
• Emerging Markets Forum (EMF), Co-chair^[74]
• African Development Bank (AfDB) Special Panel, Co-chair^[75]
• Opera Village Africa, Honorary Patron^[76]
• Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, Patron of the Horst Köhler Fellowship Programme^[77]
• Stiftung Weltethos (Global Ethics Foundation), Member of the Board of Trustees*^[78]
• Club of Rome, Honorary Member^[79]
• University of Tübingen, Honorary Senator^[80]

In 1969, Köhler married Eva Köhler (née Bohnet), a teacher.^[5] They had two children, a daughter Ulrike (born in 1972) and a son Jochen (born in 1977).^[81] Köhler was a member of the Protestant Church in Germany. A passionate swimmer, runner and cross-country skier, Köhler chose to spend much of his time in natural surroundings.^[82] Köhler lived with his wife in Berlin and Chiemgau.^[83]

Köhler died in Berlin on 1 February 2025 after a short illness, 21 days short of his 82nd birthday.^[84][85]