Horst Kohler

Horst Köhler (Skierbieszów, General Government, February 22, 1943) is a German economist and politician. From August 16, 2017 to May 22, 2019, he was sent staff of the secretary general for Western Sahara.

He was President of the Federal Republic of Germany from July 1, 2004 until his resignation on May 31, 2010. He previously held the position of Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund for four years (from May 1, 2000 to March 4, 2004).

Biography

Horst Köhler was born into a family of farmers in Skierbieszów (Lublin voivodeship, Poland), then occupied by Nazi Germany and therefore belonging to the so-called General Government, «a kind of protectorate of the Third Reich on Polish soil to which there was barely a two-year life left." He was the seventh of eight children of a family of Germans from Bessarabia, who had lived in what is now Rîscani in Moldova, then Ryschkanowka, a German colony that was born in 1860 in Bessarabia (then on Romanian territory). His parents, ethnic Germans and Romanian citizens, came to Poland in 1942 as part of the planned Germanisation by the National Socialists. When German troops withdrew from Poland, Horst Köhler was two years old and the The family fled to Markkleeberg-Zöbigker, a town near Leipzig in northern Saxony. In April 1953, when the border between the two Germanys was still open, the family moved to West Germany and In 1957, after going through several refugee camps, they managed to rebuild their lives in Ludwigsburg, a small city north of Stuttgart, in Baden-Württemberg.

After conscription, Horst Köhler studied Political Economy and Political Science (1965-1969) and in 1969 graduated with a degree in Political Economy from the University of Tübingen, where after graduation he worked as an assistant at the Institute for Research in Applied Economics (from 1969 to 1976). He received his doctorate in Economics and Political Science from the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, in 1977.

He had married the professor Eva Luise Bohnet in 1969 and in 1973 their daughter was born. From 1976 to 1986 he worked at the Ministry of Economy.

His foray into political life took place in 1976, when he agreed to a position in the General Directorate of Policies of the Federal Ministry of Finance, headed by Otto Graf Lambsdorff. At this time the government was in the hands of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), led by Helmut Schmidt. In 1981 Horst Köhler became a member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU, for its acronym in German).

In 1981, Gerhard Stoltenberg, Minister President of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, hired him as an economic and financial adviser, a position he held until 1982, when the alliance between the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Union The Christian Democrats took over the government with Helmut Kohl as the new chancellor, and Gerhard Stoltenberg was appointed finance minister. Köhler continued to perform functions as an adviser, but now within the ministry (from 1982 to 1987).In 1989 he ceased to be in the service of Gerhard Stoltenberg, when he was transferred to take charge of the Ministry of Defence. The new finance minister and leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), Theo Waigel, kept him as his assistant and soon after became secretary of state (1990-1993). In 1993 he decided to work in the private sector as President of the German Association of Savings Banks (until 1998).

He served as an adviser to Chancellor Helmut Kohl in preparation for G7 summits and other international economic conferences.

In 1998 he was appointed president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a position he had held until 2000.

In 2000, at the proposal of Gerhard Schröder, he was elected Director of the International Monetary Fund, succeeding Michel Camdessus, who had submitted his resignation on February 14 of that year. He was appointed to this position after that the first candidate proposed by the German government, Caio Kai Koch-Weser, was rejected by the United States.

On March 4, 2004, Köhler resigned from the IMF after being nominated by the conservative and liberal parties, the CDU, the CSU and the FDP, to succeed Johannes Rau as President of Germany Elected on May 23, 2004, he took office as Bundespräsident on July 1, 2004 for a five-year term.

On May 23, 2009, he was re-elected as President of Germany, remaining in office for another year, until his resignation on May 31, 2010 after being strongly criticized for statements he made about the participation of the German army in Afghanistan. The controversy broke out on May 22, 2010, when on a visit to Afghanistan, the president implied that the deployment of Bundeswehr (German army) troops in that country was motivated by commercial interests, instead of for reasons of national security:

"(...) But I believe that, in general, we are going to understand, even broadly among society, that a country of our size, with its orientation towards foreign trade and therefore also dependent on foreign trade, has to be aware that in certain cases, in emergency situations, military intervention is necessary to protect our interests; for example, to ensure the freedom of trade routes, or to prevent instability in a whole region, which could have a negative impact on our income. All this should be discussed and I don't think we're doing it too badly. "

Later, he assured that with his statements he was referring to the fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia, but as the controversy did not cease, he decided to announce his resignation on May 31, 2010, justifying it for the "lack of of respect" towards her person due to the strong criticism she received.

On August 16, 2017, he was appointed UN special envoy for Western Sahara, succeeding Christopher Ross, who stepped down after eight years. In May 2019, Köhler's resignation as UN envoy was announced. UN for the Sahara for health reasons.

Personal life

He is married and has two children.

Horst Köhler, in his capacity as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, along with the Irish singer Bono in 2000. Horst Köhler with the President of the Argentine Republic, Nestor Kirchner in Mexico on January 12, 2004