Horst Köhler
President of Germany
In office 1 July 2004 – 31 May 2010
Chancellor	Gerhard Schröder Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Johannes Rau
Succeeded by	Christian Wulff
8th Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
In office 1 May 2000 – 4 March 2004
Preceded by	Michel Camdessus
Succeeded by	Rodrigo Rato
President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
In office 1998–2000
Preceded by	Jacques de Larosière
Succeeded by	Jean Lemierre
Personal details
Born	(1943-02-22) 22 February 1943 (age 69) Heidenstein, General Government (now Skierbieszów, Poland)
Political party	Christian Democratic Union
Spouse(s)	Eva Bohnet
Alma mater	University of Tübingen
Profession	Economist
Religion	Lutheran
Signature

Horst Köhler (pronounced [ˈhɔɐ̯st ˈkøːlɐ] ( listen); born 22 February 1943) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union. He was President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the CDU and the CSU, and the liberal FDP, Köhler was elected to his first five-year term by the Federal Assembly on 23 May 2004 and was subsequently inaugurated on 1 July 2004. He was reelected to a second term on 23 May 2009. Just a year later, on 31 May 2010, he resigned from his office in a controversy over his comment on the role of the German Bundeswehr in light of a visit to the troops in Afghanistan.

Köhler is an economist by profession. Prior to his election as President, Köhler had a distinguished career in politics and the civil service and as a banking executive. He was President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 1998 to 2000 and head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2000 to 2004.

Because the office of President is less influential than that of the Chancellor and is mostly concerned with ceremonial matters, Köhler was a highly popular politician during his tenure. He has called for more influence for the President and has suggested the President should be directly elected (as was the case under Germany's Weimar Constitution).

Early life[link]

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 Rîşcani in Romanian Bessarabia (near Bălţi, present-day Moldova). 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). 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.

Studies and military service[link]

A teacher recommended that the refugee boy should apply for the Gymnasium, and Köhler took his Abitur in 1963. After a two-year military service at a Panzergrenadier battalion in Ellwangen, he left the Bundeswehr as "Leutnant der Reserve" (reserve officer). He studied and finally earned a doctorate in economics and political sciences from Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, where he was a scientific research assistant at the Institute for Applied Economic Research from 1969 to 1976.

Career in the civil service[link]

Köhler joined the civil service in 1976, when he was employed in the Federal Ministry of Economics. In 1981, he was employed in the Chancellory of the state government in Schleswig-Holstein under Prime Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg. The following year, Köhler was made head of the Ministers office in the Federal Ministry of Finance, upon Stoltenberg's recommendation. He rose to head of department in 1987, with responsibility for financial policy and federal industrial interests. In 1989 he became head of the department for currency and credit.

Secretary of State in the Ministry of Finance[link]

A member of the CDU since 1981, he 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. He also served as the primary German negotiator in the Maastricht Treaty negotiations.

Career in banking 1993–2000[link]

Between 1993 and 1998 he served as President of the association of savings banks in Germany, Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband. In 1998 he was appointed president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and settled in London, where the headquarters of the bank is located.

Head of the International Monetary Fund[link]

Köhler as head of the IMF, discussing debt relief for developing countries with the musician Bono

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.

He lived in Washington, D.C., from 2000 to 2004.

President of Germany[link]

Horst Köhler and Vaclav Havel, 2000

On 4 March 2004, Köhler resigned his post with the IMF after being nominated by Germany's conservative and liberal opposition parties as their presidential candidate. As these parties controlled a majority of votes in the Bundesversammlung (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, while one elector was absent because of a heart attack. 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.

Upon his election, Köhler, a conservative German patriot, said that "Patriotism and being cosmopolitan are not opposites". "He appeared an enlightened patriot who genuinely loves his country and is not afraid to say so", the newspaper Die Welt wrote. 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.

In July 2005, he suspended the Bundestag at Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's request, after the latter had lost a motion of confidence in the Bundestag. This led to early election for the Bundestag in September 2005.

Horst Köhler in Brackenheim after unveiling a bronze statue of Theodor Heuss

In October 2006, he 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 contravenes the constitution. 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 German states. There had only been six previous occasions when Germany's president had chosen to reject bills, in most instances less important legislation was involved. His vetoes were the first notable examples in recent German history.

In his 2007 Christmas address to the nation, Köhler urged the government 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 1000 jobs at Deutsche Post rival PIN Group), stating that "a minimum wage that cannot be paid by competitive employers destroys jobs".^[1]

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,^[2] and was sworn into office for a second term on 1 July 2009.

Resignation[link]

On 31 May 2010, Köhler announced his resignation as President of Germany.^[3] This came after German politicians criticised comments made by Köhler in relation to overseas military deployments:^[4]

"Meine Einschätzung ist aber, dass insgesamt wir auf dem Wege sind, doch auch in der Breite der Gesellschaft zu verstehen, dass ein Land unserer Größe mit dieser Außenhandelsorientierung und damit auch Außenhandelsabhängigkeit auch wissen muss, dass im Zweifel, im Notfall auch militärischer Einsatz notwendig ist, um unsere Interessen zu wahren, zum Beispiel freie Handelswege, zum Beispiel ganze regionale Instabilitäten zu verhindern, die mit Sicherheit dann auch auf unsere Chancen zurückschlagen negativ durch Handel, Arbeitsplätze und Einkommen. Alles das soll diskutiert werden und ich glaube, wir sind auf einem nicht so schlechten Weg."

"In my estimation, though, we—including [German] society as a whole—are coming to the general understanding that, given this [strong] focus and corresponding dependency on exports, a country of our size needs to be aware that where called for or in an emergency, military deployment, too, is necessary if we are to protect our interests such as ensuring free trade routes or preventing regional instabilities which are also certain to negatively impact our ability to safeguard trade, jobs and income. All of this should be discussed and I think the path we are on is not so bad."

— Horst Köhler, Interview with Deutschlandradio^[5], 22 May 2010

After coming under criticism for his statements that Germany’s military missions abroad also served to secure trade, critics accused him of advocating the use of "gunboat diplomacy".^[6] He subsequently stated that his comments referred to piracy off the coast of Somalia. Köhler stated that there was no substance to accusations that in the interview he had overstepped his formal role by favoring an unconstitutional position. After getting no substantial support in the dispute, Köhler stepped down on 31 May 2010, issuing a statement saying "I declare my resignation from the Office of President, with immediate effect."^[7] The resignation was considered a "surprise",^[8] and both pundits and opposition politicians labeled it "an overreaction".^[9][10] The following days he was criticized for not being able to handle criticism while being a rigorous critic himself. His unprecedented act of immediate resignation was also considered showing a lack of respect for his position.^[11]

As stipulated by the German constitution, the powers of the vacant office were executed by the current President of the Bundesrat, Jens Böhrnsen, until Christian Wulff was elected president on 30 June 2010. Wulff himself resigned less than two years later after allegations of corruption were levelled against him. Wulff resigned on 17 February 2012 and was succeeded by Joachim Gauck.

Personal life[link]

Horst Köhler is married to Eva Köhler, a teacher. They have two children, a daughter Ulrike (born in 1972) and a son Jochen (born in 1977).^[12] His daughter, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, became blind as a teenager. Horst Köhler is a member of the Evangelical Church in Germany.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Horst Köhler

• Horst Köhler at the official page of the German President
• Biographical information (from the IMF)
• Horst Köhler's speech in Berlin upon his election as president (MP3)

v t e Presidents of the Federal Republic of Germany Theodor Heuss Heinrich Lübke Gustav Heinemann Walter Scheel Karl Carstens Richard von Weizsäcker Roman Herzog Johannes Rau Horst Köhler Christian Wulff Joachim Gauck

v t e Presidential candidates of the CDU/CSU Theodor Heuss (1949, 1954) · Heinrich Lübke (1959, 1964) · Gerhard Schröder (1969) · Richard von Weizsäcker (1974, 1984, 1989) · Karl Carstens (1979) · Roman Herzog (1994) · Dagmar Schipanski (1999) · Horst Köhler (2004, 2009) · Christian Wulff (2010) · Joachim Gauck (2012) (non-members endorsed in italics, sucessful candidacies in bold)

v t e Presidential candidates of the Free Democratic Party Theodor Heuss (1949, 1954) · Max Becker (1959 · Ewald Bucher (1964) · Gustav Heinemann (1969) · Walter Scheel (1974) · Richard von Weizsäcker (1989) · Hildegard Hamm-Brücher (1994) · Horst Köhler (2004, 2009) · Christian Wulff (2010) · Joachim Gauck (2012) (non-members endorsed in italics, sucessful candidacies in bold)

Gesine Schwan
President of the Viadrina European University
In office 1 October 1999 – 30 September 2008
Preceded by	Hans Weiler
Succeeded by	Gunter Pleuger
Personal details
Born	(1943-05-22) May 22, 1943 (age 69) Berlin
Political party	SPD
Spouse(s)	Alexander Schwan (died 1989) Peter Eigen (since 2004)
Alma mater	Free University of Berlin University of Freiburg
Profession	Political scientist
Religion	Roman Catholic

Gesine Schwan (born 22 May 1943) is a German political science professor and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The party has nominated her twice as a candidate for the federal presidential elections. On 23 May 2004, she was defeated by the Christian Democrat and former president Horst Köhler. On 23 May 2009, both competed again for this position and Horst Köhler won his second term.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Born in Berlin on 22 May 1943, Schwan was baptized in the Roman Catholic faith^[2] as the daughter of Oberschulrat (Senior School Inspector) Hans R. Schneider. During the Third Reich dictatorship her parents were members of the passive resistance^[3] offering protection to a Jewish girl by hiding her. After World War II, the family engaged actively in the reconciliation of Polish–German relations.

In 1969, Schwan married her first husband, Professor Alexander Schwan, with whom she had two children and who died in 1989.^[3] In 2004, Gesine Schwan celebrated her second wedding with longtime companion Peter Eigen in Berlin. He is a former World Bank manager as well as a founder and current Chair of the Advisory Council of Transparency International.

Academic life[link]

Education[link]

In 1962, Schwan graduated (Abitur) from the bilingual Französisches Gymnasium, a German-French secondary school in Berlin. In the same year, she began her studies in history, philosophy, romance languages, and political science at the Free University of Berlin and later at University of Freiburg.^[4]

Early career[link]

After research stays in Warsaw and Kraków, she obtained her Ph.D. in 1970 from FU Berlin for a dissertation on the Polish philosopher Leszek Kołakowski.^[5] After that, she became assistant professor at the same university. Here, she continued her works on the critique of Marx^[6] for which she received the habilitation in 1975.

Professorship[link]

Schwan was appointed full professor at the Department of Political Science at FU Berlin in 1977. At the time, her research fields encompassed political theory, philosophy, psychology, and culture as well as theories of democracy and socialism. In 1980/81, she had a research stay at the Wilson Center for Scholars in the USA; another research stay in 1984 at the Robinson College at Cambridge University; in 1998, she was visiting professor at the New School for Social Research in New York. From 1993–1995, she was dean of the Political Science Faculty at FU Berlin.^[4]

In 1999, Gesine Schwan competed for the post of president of FU Berlin, but was defeated by Peter Gaehtgens.^[7] In the same year, she was elected as the president of Viadrina European University in Frankfurt (Oder).^[7]

Political life[link]

Schwan belongs to the German tradition of social democratic opposition to Karl Marx's theories. In September 1974, she was one of the founding members of the Seeheimer Kreis, a conservative think tank within the SPD.^[8] She became a member of the SPD Grundwertekommission (Commission for Fundamental Values) in 1977. In 1984, she was removed from this position after criticizing the party's Ostpolitik as cooperating too closely with communist governments, while not engaging enough with dissidents.^[9] Rather she sought for support and dialog with those Eastern Europeans who would dare to criticize their governments.^[10] Schwan was reinstated in the Grundwertekommission in 1996. Since 2002, she has presided over the German-Polish Forum together with Janusz Reiter. In November 2004, the German government under Gerhard Schröder appointed her to the newly-created office of the co-ordinator for cooperation with Poland (her counterpart on the Polish side was then Irena Lipowicz).^[4] She retained this position when the government changed and became headed by Christian Democrat Angela Merkel. In February 2009, she criticized Schröder for being too uncritical towards Vladimir Putin and too insensitive about Polish concerns about closer German-Russian ties. ^[11]

On 15 September 2010, Schwan supported the new initiative Spinelli Group in the European Parliament, which was founded to reinvigorate the strive for federalisation of the European Union (EU). Other prominent supporters are: Jacques Delors, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Andrew Duff, and Elmar Brok.

Presidential elections[link]

On 23 May 2004, Gesine Schwan was the SPD candidate for the German presidential election. She received 589 votes in the Bundesversammlung (Federal Assembly) but was defeated by Horst Köhler who won 604 votes from the 1205 delegates.^[12] On 26 May 2008, SPD chairman Kurt Beck announced Schwan's renewed nomination for the upcoming presidential elections in 2009.^[13] Once again she competed with Horst Köhler, who announced his repeated candidacy on 22 May 2008.^[14] In the event Köhler was re-elected to a second term over Schwan.

Controversy over statements on communist dictatorship[link]

Before the 2009 presidential election, Gesine Schwan was criticized by the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives, Marianne Birthler, for statements on the political regime of East Germany. Reportedly, several electors from the Green Party refused to vote for Schwan due to her statements regarding the communist state.^[15]

List of works[link]

• Die Gesellschaftskritik von Karl Marx. Philosophische und politökonomische Voraussetzungen, 1974
• Sozialismus in der Demokratie? Theorie einer konsequent sozialdemokratischen Politik, 1982
• Politik und Schuld. Die zerstörerische Macht des Schweigens, 1997. ISBN 3-596-13404-8
• Antikommunismus und Antiamerikanismus in Deutschland. Kontinuität und Wandel nach 1945, 1999

Awards and honors[link]

• 1993 Federal cross of merits (Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse)
• 1999 Urania-Medal Award for Particular Activities in the Scientific National Education
• 2002 Commander's Cross of the Order of Merits of the Federal Republic of Germany (Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz)
• 2004 Marion Dönhoff Award for International Agreement and Conciliation
• 2006 Honorary doctor of the European University Institute, Florence^[16]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gesine Schwan

v t e Presidential candidates of the Social Democratic Party of Germany Friedrich Ebert (1919) · Otto Braun (1925) · Paul von Hindenburg (1932) · Kurt Schumacher (1949) · Theodor Heuss (1954) · Carlo Schmid (1959) · Heinrich Lübke (1964) · Gustav Heinemann (1969) · Walter Scheel (1974) · Annemarie Renger (1979) · Richard von Weizsäcker (1989) · Johannes Rau (1994, 1999) · Gesine Schwan (2004, 2009) · Joachim Gauck (2010, 2012) (non-members endorsed in italics, sucessful candidacies in bold)