“If the Deutsche Bundesbank fails to comprehend that it is its duty to support the Federal Government’s general economic policy, then Parliament will have to readdress the central bank’s position.”

“It would be difficult to convince me that a European central bank will be as effective in its anti-inflationary policy as the Bundesbank is.”

“If the Bundesbank’s Directorate even blinks, it sends shock waves through the capital markets across the whole of Europe without us having even the slightest means of intervention.”

“Not all Germans believe in God, but they all believe in the Bundesbank.”

“If I were German, I would definitely keep the Bundesbank and the D-mark.”

“The Bundesbank President is Germany’s most powerful opponent of monetary union.”

“Don’t let them destroy your Bundesbank. The destruction of the central bank in Frankfurt will cost the Germans and Europe dearly.”

“It’s [the Bundesbank] like cream, the more you whip it the harder it gets.”

“I had hoped that the European Central Bank would act as pragmatically as the Fed after 1999. It’s now becoming clear, however, that the Bundesbank is dictating the terms of monetary union. … European banks keep assuring me that the euro will be even stronger than the D-mark. All I can say to that is: That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”

“[A] policy of high real interest rates led to mass unemployment in Europe. … Worldwide, there is currently mass unemployment only in countries that are under the direct influence of the Bundesbank.”

“As the Federal Chancellor, I sometimes have a problem with the Bundesbank. As a citizen, I’m glad that it exists.”

“..., by virtue of its behaviour it [the Deutsche Bundesbank] has created for itself an aura, virtually a mythical status, of having created and protected a healthy culture of stability in Germany.”

“The Bundesbank has managed to retain its credibility not because of but rather in spite of its monetary target.”

“Before economic and monetary union, the Bundesbank set the tone of inflation for the whole of the European continent. Countries felt they should try to keep up with the D-mark.”

“… in the mid-1970s, the Bundesbank introduced a concept of annual monetary targets based on Friedman’s basic monetarist idea which, on the whole, proved its worth for more than two decades.”