Horst Koehler, former German president from 2004 to 2010 and a respected global policymaker, died on Saturday after a short illness at the age of 81.
German federal presidential office confirmed in a statement.
Born in 1943 in German-occupied Poland, Koehler spent most of his early years living in refugee camps with his family before settling in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Reuters reported.
A trained economist and member of the Christian Democrats, Koehler rose to the position of deputy finance minister under ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl, playing a key role in bringing the West German mark to East Germany after communist rule collapsed in 1990.
He became managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2000, a post he held for four years before being nominated for president in 2004.
As president, Koehler was not afraid to defy the government, dissolving parliament in 2005 to call new elections and accusing then-Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2007 of not preparing the country sufficiently for globalisation.
But Koehler stepped down a year into his second term after he was criticised for stating in a radio interview that foreign military action by the German army also served the country's economic interests.
bd-pratidin/GR
