Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader who used pragmatism, guile and an outsize personality to navigate a hazardous course in Mideast politics, surviving guerrilla war, the terrors of Saddam Hussein and shifting alliances to become the first president of Iraq under its postwar Constitution, died on Tuesday in Berlin. He was 83.

The cause was a brain hemorrhage and a stroke, his second since 2012, according to Saadi Bira, a spokesman for Mr. Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

The Iraqi presidency, on paper, is largely ceremonial. But Mr. Talabani, through skillful bridge-building, used his tenure in office, from 2005 to 2012, to act as a chief executive with a broad and powerful portfolio.

President George W. Bush’s administration saw Mr. Talabani as an important ally, though at times he was a harsh critic of American policies and military tactics. The Obama White House was also quick to reach out to him. Michael Rubin, editor of Middle East Quarterly, reported that “less than two weeks into his presidency,” President Barack Obama telephoned Mr. Talabani “to discuss the way ahead.’’