TEMPO.CO, Berlin - Former president Richard von Weizsaecker, who challenged German attitudes about the Holocaust by arguing that the country had been liberated by the Nazi defeat in 1945, died on Saturday, January 31 at the age of 94.

Von Weizsaecker, a member of one of Germany's most distinguished aristocratic families, also presided over the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, 11 months after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Von Weizsaecker was most remembered for a speech in May 1985 in the 40th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in which he urged Germans to come to terms with responsibility for the Holocaust.

He stirred some controversy at home by saying Germany had been liberated by the Third Reich's downfall.

During World War Two, Von Weizsaecker, a conservative Christian Democrat (CDU), had served as a Wehrmacht officer. He drew criticism for having served in Hitler's army, where he was promoted several times and in 1944 awarded the Iron Cross.

Prior to the Third Reich era, he stepped up into politics and then became West Germany's president in 1984, before leaving office a decade later.

REUTERS | WINONA AMANDA