Horst Köhler

Horst Köhler came up as an economist, moving through the civil service into banking's highest tiers: president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1998, then head of the IMF in 2000. Four years later the Christian Democrats and the FDP put him forward for Germany's presidency, and the Federal Convention elected him in May 2004. He was inaugurated that July into an office of ceremony, not command - yet became more popular than either Gerhard Schröder or Angela Merkel during those years. Reelected in 2009, he lasted only until May 2010, when controversy over a comment he made during a visit to German forces in Afghanistan prompted his resignation. He surfaced again briefly in 2012 on a UN panel shaping the post-2015 development agenda, then stepped back for good. He died in February 2025.