
Berlin:
Officials announced that former German President Hurst Kohler, who served as head of state from 2004 to 2010, died at the age of 81 after a brief illness on Saturday.
In a letter to Hurst Kohler’s widow, President Frank-Walter Steinimier said, “With the death of Hurst Kohler, we have lost a very respected and most popular man who has achieved great things in his country and in the world. “
Hurst Kohler, a economist by training, was the first German president who was not a career politician. Before becoming president, he was the head of the International Monetary Fund in Washington.
He became the German president, who, mostly formal, after being presented to the then opposition leader Angela Merkel, who became the Chancellor.
He was elected for the second term in 2009 but resigned after criticizing remarks about German military missions abroad in May next year.
The President said that he died in Berlin earlier in the week after a brief, serious illness surrounded by his family.
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