Horst Köhler Profile: A Financial Diplomat For President

The Managing Director of the the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington will be jointly nominated by the conservative CDU and CSU parties along with the liberal FDP as a successor to current President Johannes Rau in May this year.

Köhler may have a distinguished career in international finance under his belt, but both in and outside Germany, he's a relative unknown.

Born in Skierbieszów, southeastern Poland on February 22, 1943, Köhler is the seventh of eight children. His parents were ethnic German farmers from Romania. The family moved to Leipzig in communist East Germany after World War II, then fled to West Germany in 1954.

Helmut Kohl's right-hand man

As head of the IMF, he's helped raise Germany's profile in global finance and diplomacy, but he's by no means a household name in his own country

A CDU party member since 1981, observers say he never lets party politics influence his decisions. He sees himself first and foremost as an economist. He gained a docorate from the University of Tübingen before beginning his political career at the German Finance Ministry.

As deputy finance minister from 1990 to 1993, he was Chancellor Helmut Kohl's leading advisor on international economic and financial questions, working as a so-called "Sherpa" because he did the preparatory tasks for major world economic summits. He was closely involved in the process of German reunification and was also was one of the chief negotiatiors for the Maastricht treaty which paved the way for European Economic and Monetary Union.

President of the German Savings Bank Association from 1993 to 1998, Köhler's international career started when he become head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London in 1998, overseeing the adaptation of 26 former East-bloc countries to a market economy.

International stature

A few years later, Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schröder recommended Köhler as director of the International Monetary Fund, a post he took up on May 1, 2000 -- the first time a German was in one of the top positions controlling international finance and trade.

Köhler hasn't shrunk from criticisizing Germany's failure to carry out social and educational reforms. Although the presidency is largely ceremonial, he'll be able to play a greater role in confronting and resolving Germany's problems.

Now 61 years old, Köhler is married, with two children.