About Horst Köhler
Horst Köhler was a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties and also candidate of the liberal FDP, Köhler was elected to his first five-year term by the Federal Convention 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 a comment on the role of the German Armed Forces in light of a visit to the troops in Afghanistan. During his tenure as president, whose office is mostly concerned with ceremonial matters, Köhler was a highly popular politician, with approval rates above those of both Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and later Chancellor Angela Merkel. Horst Köhler hence spent most of his first 14 years as a refugee. As the Wehrmacht was pushed back and the first parts of Poland had to be abandoned in 1944, the Köhler family fled to Leipzig. Upon Stoltenberg's recommendation (who was Federal Finance Minister in Kohl's first, second and third cabinet until 21 April 1989), Köhler was made head of Stoltenberg's office in the Federal Ministry of Finance.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.