Horst Köhler, Former German President and I.M.F. Leader, Dies at 81

Horst Köhler, who became Germany’s president after being a financial engineer behind the reunification of Germany and the creation several decades later of the euro currency, died on Saturday in Berlin. He was 81.

The German president’s office, in a statement on behalf of Mr. Köhler’s family, said he died after a short illness.

Despite having served as managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Köhler was little known politically in Germany before becoming the country’s president in 2004. Yet Mr. he rose to popularity after taking office, serving much of his nearly six years alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Mr. Köhler advocated transforming Germany into “a land of ideas” that would shape its own future and act as a force for good on the global stage. He called for bolder domestic economic reforms, and a more confident position internationally. In his May 2004 acceptance speech, he said that “Germany has to fight for its place in the 21st century.”

But his bold statements, such as questioning whether the unequal living standards in the former East and West Germany could ever be evened out, broke taboos in the German political establishment and came at a cost.