Former German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle dies aged 54

Guido Westerwelle, the former German foreign minister and leader of the country’s liberal party, has died after a long battle with leukaemia. He was 54.

He will be remembered as one of the most talented German politicians of his generation, a powerful and pugnacious orator who in 2009 led the Free Democrats to their best ever election result and brought them back into government after 11 years in opposition.

Under his leadership, the FDP formed a coalition government with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats in which Westerwelle served as foreign minister and deputy chancellor. But he was forced to resign as FDP chief in 2011 after the party suffered a series of electoral setbacks.

Speaking at the EU Council summit, a visibly-moved Chancellor Merkel said: “Guido Westerwelle, our friend is dead…I don’t have the words to really express what I am feeling at this moment.”

She described him as “sensitive and thoughtful”, a “dependable and loyal person”.

Joachim Gauck, Germany’s president, said Westerwelle will be remembered as a “passionate democrat and European” who had been committed to closer European integration, particularly during the euro crisis.

Westerwelle was born near Bonn in 1961. The son of two lawyers, he studied law at Bonn University, and qualified as a lawyer in 1991, after which he worked at his father’s law firm.

He joined the FDP in 1980 and soon earned the reputation of a rising star. In 1983 was one of the co-founders of the Young Liberals and in 1994 he was appointed general secretary of the FDP, entering the Bundestag two years later. He was elected the FDP’s youngest ever chief in 2001.

Westerwelle injected new energy into the party, pushing it towards a policy of equidistance from Germany’s two main parties — the CDU and social democrats. In the 2002 election campaign he criss-crossed the country in his so-called Guidomobil, and set a goal of achieving 18 per cent. In the end the FDP won only 7.4 per cent. But five years later he led it to a historic result of 14.6 per cent and became foreign minister.

The job did not suit him: he was seen as too outspoken and combative to be Germany’s top diplomat. He also suffered from having promised tax cuts during the election campaign which in government he failed to deliver.

Westerwelle was also criticised after Germany abstained from the UN Security Council vote authorising a no-fly zone over Libya.

In 2011 he resigned the leadership of the FDP after the party saw its share of the vote collapse in a series of regional elections. In the 2013 elections, the FDP won less than the 5 per cent threshold for representation in the Bundestag — marking the first time it has had no MPs in the German parliament since 1949.

A few months after he left the government he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, a particularly dangerous form of blood cancer and later published a book about his illness, Between Two Lives.

He is survived by his civil partner, Michael Mronz.

A statement published on Friday on the Westerwelle Foundation website said: “We have fought. We had the goal in mind. We are grateful for the incredibly wonderful time we had together. The love remains. Guido Westerwelle and Michael Mronz, Cologne, 18th March 2016.”