After such a colourful, controversial figure as Oskar Lafontaine, Germany's new Finance Minister was bound to look a little dull. But Mr Hans Eichel, who will take charge of Germany's finances next month, brings a new dimension to the word colourless.
"He doesn't dance like Fred Astaire and he doesn't sing like Caruso," according to the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder.
The left-wing Tageszeitung newspaper went a little further, describing Mr Eichel as possessing "all the charisma of a wet noodle".
For all his lack of glamour, Mr Eichel is one of Germany's most successful regional politicians and is acknowledged as a financial expert who, in the words of one party colleague, "always gets his sums right".
Having served as prime minister of the southern state of Hesse since 1990, Mr Eichel lost power in a state election on February 7th. The defeat was due to a spectacularly poor showing by his coalition partners in the Greens.
Universally regarded as trustworthy, loyal and dependable, Mr Eichel is popular among Social Democrats and highly respected by political opponents. His experience of sharing power with the Greens ought to be useful in his new post, which will inevitably bring him into conflict with some cabinet colleagues.
Although his roots are on the left of the Social Democrats, Mr Eichel has recently moved closer to the business-friendly policies of Mr Schroder. Following a poor election result in Hesse in 1995, his government changed direction and began to cultivate business, promoting research and technology, including such controversial projects as gene technology.
With Germany's business capital, Frankfurt, at its heart, Hesse is the most economically successful state in the country.
Despite his eye for detail and his acknowledged financial expertise, Mr Eichel has little experience of the international financial world. The Chancellor signalled yesterday that Mr Lafontaine's proposal to create exchange-rate target zones for the dollar, the euro and the yen has already been abandoned.
But Mr Eichel's first task will be to repair relations between the German government and the European Central Bank (ECB), which has its headquarters in Frankfurt. The personal hostility between Mr Lafontaine and the ECB's president, Mr Wim Duisenberg, was widely viewed as damaging to the euro and an impediment to the interest-rate cut that the German economy needs.
The new Finance Minister's unassuming manner will be more appealing to the central bankers.
The media may sneer at the new Minister's lack of glamour, but German voters like to have a safe pair of hands taking care of the national exchequer. They could not find a more dependable caretaker than this quiet, former schoolmaster with a good head for figures.
