Goodbye to a humble former German president – DW – 02/01/2025

Horst Köhler has never been a man to actively search for the spotlight. Nevertheless, in the spring of 2010, he dominated the headlines of Germany for weeks. At that time, he was president of Germany, the head of state largely ceremonial. He had given an interview in which he commented on the role of the Bundeswehr, the country’s armed forces.

Referring to Germany, the 67-year-old man of the time said that “a country of our size which is oriented towards foreign trade and therefore strongly dependent on it, must also know that in the event of Doubt, in the event of an emergency, military interventions could also be necessary to maintain our interests, for example secure commercial routes.

Indignation in Berlin’s political circles

This statement, it quickly became obvious, was an error. Trying to justify the controversial military deployment in Afghanistan by obtaining commercial roads sparked criticism through the lines of the parties. “Ambiguous”, “a presidential misstep”, “extreme positions” and “very dangerous” were only a few of the reactions in the Berlin political circles.

This did not help the scolded Köhler that he only announced later that his statement was not in reference to the Afghanistan operation, but to a Bundeswehr commitment against piracy – and that his Declarations were in accordance with a White Bundeswehr paper published by the government published by the government published by the government published by the government published by the Government in 2006, they were therefore an official government policy for years.

Köhler, deeply affected by the scale of the reaction, left his post. According to him, criticism was unjustified and lacked “the respect for my office”. Neither Chancellor Angela Merkel nor her extremely high popularity rating among the population could prevent her from resigning.

The meteoric rise of a financial expert

The public image of Horst Köhler in Germany was shaped until the end by these deceptive declarations and its subsequent resignation. But the work of his life was much more.

Born the seventh of the eight children in 1943, in the Polish city of Skierbieszow occupied by the German, he grew up in Saxony and Baden-Wurttemberg. He quickly made a career after studying the economy in Tübingen and joined the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the early 1980s.

As a high -level official at the Ministry of Finance, he participated in negotiations around the reunification of Germany and the EU Maastricht Treaty. In 2000, he became director general of the Washington International Monetary Fund, at the suggestion of the Chancellor of the time, Gerhard Schröder.

Despite positions of great responsibility, Köhler remained largely unknown to the general public. So much so that when he took office as German president in the summer of 2004, one of the country’s great tabloids led the title “Horst who?”

Despite these difficult departing conditions, Köhler managed to become one of Germany’s most popular politicians. In opinion polls in his six years in power, more than 70% of Germans have constantly declared that they were “very satisfied” with the work of their president.

It was also because of his management of the global financial crisis, which also threatened to strike Germany with full force. As a former banker, Kohler knew his way around the problems and did not hide his contempt for the greed of the industry. In May 2008, he described the financial markets as a “monster” which was to be “put in his place”.

Köhler denounced injustices not only with regard to financial jugglers, but also with regard to Africa – the continent he has seen perished because of the ignorance and unscrupulous of the so -called “Première World ».

Special interest in Africa

After his time as president, until a short time before his death, Köhler remained mainly active with regard to foreign affairs. His presidential successors regularly called her to represent Germany in international affairs, especially in Africa.

His interest in the African continent, social projects, sustainable affairs and human globalization with reliable rules were not only altruistic, but based on political realism or “realpolitik”. An example is seen in a speech he delivered in Hamburg in early 2018: “Giving prospects for African youth is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Here, a power that must be counted, for the better or for worse. “

In 2012, the secretary general of nations of the time, Ban Ki Moon, named him to a committee working on the objectives of global development. In 2017, Köhler became the United Nations Special Envoy for Western Sahara. Its task was to resolve the conflict on the future of the disputed territory occupied by Morocco. When Köhler left the role in May 2019 for health reasons, the two parties in the conflict – the Rabat government and the Polisario front – noted this stage with regret and expressed their gratitude for Köhler’s efforts.

Köhler almost never commented on current internal political issues after his resignation. In 2021, he showed that climate protection was an important question for him when he resumed the patronage of the Citizens’ Council of the first country for climate policy. A foundation created by Köhler and his wife promise research on rare diseases.

Horst Köhler, who lived alternately in Berlin and Chiemgau in Bavaria, is survived by his wife Eva Luise, two children and several grandchildren.

This article has been translated from German.