Joachim Nagel is to become the new President of the Bundesbank.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) tweeted on Monday that he and Chancellor Olaf Scholz were proposing Nagel to succeed Jens Weidmann.

In view of inflation risks, the importance of a stability-oriented monetary policy is growing.

"He is an experienced person who ensures the continuity of the Bundesbank," wrote Lindner. But who is the man who is supposed to defend the German monetary policy stance in the European Central Bank in the future?

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in business.

  • Follow I follow

Nagel is a friendly person, a brutal demeanor is not his thing.

The 55-year-old economist with dark glasses comes from Karlsruhe, where he also completed his studies up to a doctorate.

In the nineties he was at times a consultant for economic and financial policy at the SPD party executive in Bonn.

After positions at the Landeszentralbank in Hanover, the Bundesbank and the KfW banking group, he most recently worked in the management of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which is also known as the "Bank of Central Banks".

Now Nagel is to be the successor to Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, who is leaving at the end of the year.

An exciting change: In the ten years of his tenure in office, Weidmann has earned the reputation of a “hawk” in the Governing Council, that is, a proponent of a tighter monetary policy.

He fought tirelessly, albeit diplomatically, in the Governing Council for the Bundesbank's point of view.

It is therefore particularly interesting to ask whether Nagel will continue this course;

or whether a change of direction is to be expected.

Relief in the financial center

After all: Neither the Bundesbank nor the European Central Bank heard of any major protests when the news first circulated that Nagel could get this post. While the fact that Nagel is a member of the SPD should undoubtedly play a role in the traffic light coalition under the new Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), the central banks apparently particularly appreciate the fact that he brings with him experience in everyday central banker life at the Bundesbank. As a member of the board, he was not directly responsible for monetary policy, but for the financial markets. Nevertheless, this counts as practical experience in this institution - Nagel passes through as a “Bundesbanker”, so to speak. 

Many veterans at the Frankfurt financial center, who are very much connected to traditional Bundesbank politics, seem happy that it has become a nail and not ECB director Isabel Schnabel or DIW boss Marcel Fratzscher, who were also speculated about and who made them would have expected greater deviations from the Weidmann course.

To date, Nagel is not an international academic expert on monetary policy, as some critically point out.

But that was also not Weidmann when he took office.

At the time, he came from Angela Merkel's advisory staff - and still held the position well at an academically high level.