Horst Koehler, former German president from 2004 to 2010 and a respected global policymaker with a particular interest in Africa, died on Saturday after a short illness at the age of 81, the federal presidential office said in a statement.

He held the ceremonial post of German president after a finance-focused career. Shortly into his second term, he became the first German president in four decades to resign.

State secretary, International Monetary Fund head, President of Germany: Horst Köhler's career reads like something out of a novel. Nevertheless, in the spring of 2010, he dominated the headlines across Germany for weeks.

Germany's former president Horst Koehler, who also once headed the International Monetary Fund and was a strong backer of Africa, died Saturday aged 81 after a brief illness.

Horst Köhler, a onetime head of the International Monetary Fund who became a popular German president before stunning the country by resigning abruptly in a flap over comments about the country’s military,