The first of November saw Uwe Nebgen take over as President of the Regional Office in Hamburg, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein from Arno Bäcker, who held that post for eight years. In your 33 years of service at the Deutsche Bundesbank, you have been a knowledgeable and diplomatic voice for the Bundesbank’s commitment to stability in Germany and abroad,” President Joachim Nagel told Arno Bäcker at the official change of office ceremony, which was also attended by Vice-President Sabine Mauderer and Executive Board member Lutz Lienenkämper. Both this and your tireless and unstinting dedication deserve my wholehearted gratitude, which I would also like to convey on behalf of the entire Executive Board, which returned to its full contingent a few days ago.

Nagel spoke about Arno Bäcker’s fascination with complex topics as well as his cosmopolitan and approachable nature – character traits that were also crucial for navigating the current economic environment in search of compelling and future-proof solutions to today’s challenges. Cosmopolitanism meant a number of things from an economic perspective, Nagel continued, including doing whatever was necessary to achieve net zero in Germany over the next 20 years. It also meant acknowledging demographic change in Germany: Population numbers here are in decline. We are lacking workers, including above all qualified and highly qualified ones, with their talents, their fresh ideas and their vigour. Opening up is enriching, and it helps preserve our prosperity. And cosmopolitanism also meant, as a last point, taking on board the breathtaking advances that digitalisation and artificial intelligence had made possible, the Bundesbank President said.

Nagel associated being approachable with a readiness to seek out compromises, and to stick to international rules and standards. That readiness is something we need in politics in Germany. We need it at the interface between politics and business, and we also need it in the push and pull of global geopolitics. It was important, Nagel argued, for the different sides to approach each other openly so that the complex challenges of our time could be overcome – in the global interest, in the European interest, in the interest of Germany, and in the interest of the region in northern Germany.

Turning his attention to Arno Bäcker’s successor, Uwe Nebgen, the Bundesbank President said that, with Mr Nebgen at the helm, everyone could count on the Regional Office remaining cosmopolitan and yet deeply rooted in the region. This, he said, was because Uwe Nebgen also had a broad international perspective, having spent much of his time at the Bundesbank, which he joined 34 years ago, in the international arena. In closing, Nagel wished Uwe Nebgen every success in his new post.