Wolfgang Schaeuble, German finance minister during euro debt crisis, dies

Wolfgang Schaeuble. Picture: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)

Wolfgang Schaeuble, who helped negotiate German reunification in 1990 and as finance minister was a central figure in the austerity-heavy effort to drag Europe out of its debt crisis more than two decades later, has died aged 81.

Mr Schaeuble died at home on Tuesday evening, his family told German news agency dpa on Wednesday.