December 31st, 2001, is etched in the German psyche as the day the dear old Deutschmark died. The date now also stands for the beginning of the end of the career of Mr Ernst Welteke, the former Bundesbank president.
However, it was only in Punchestown two weeks ago that things began to unravel.
German journalists in Ireland had got word that Der Spiegel news magazine was about to publish a report claiming that Dresdner Bank paid a bill worth nearly €8,000 for a long weekend for Mr Welteke and his family in Berlin, where he helped launch the euro.
Irish journalists watched, amazed, as their German colleagues politely enquired whether the extraordinary allegations were true. Mr Welteke admitted that he let Dresdner pay the bill but, to the further amazement of the Irish press pack, said he saw nothing wrong with his decision. "When someone invites me to take part in an event, then I assume they will also cover the costs," he said. "When I am on a weekend break in Berlin, I like to stretch it out a bit."
Mr Welteke realised how badly he had misjudged the matter on his return to Germany when he was greeted with front-page tabloid pictures of him partying with Baywatch babes and headlines such as: "Just what planet does Mr Welteke live on?"
The Bundesbank president, normally a grey, paternalistic figure from the business pages, was now being mocked on the front page of the country's tabloids and bringing into dispute the holiest of German institutions, the Bundesbank.
Mr Welteke, a 61-year-old father of four and engineer turned politician, decided to fight his corner, even though he knew he would have little support from the government in Berlin.
Mr Welteke was seen in German financial and political circles as a competent manager who was nevertheless perceived as lacking the intellectual nous of his predecessors. He oversaw the loss of prestige that came with the transfer of Bundesbank powers to the European Central Bank and pushed through a plan to shed one-third of Bundesbank staff by 2007.
