It was a crazy New Year's Eve, twenty years ago. That night you could buy your first euros in a so-called starter kit, for example in Frankfurt in the splendid branch of the Dresdner Bank in the Fürstenhof: small bags with coins, which from now on should represent our money. It will not be forgotten how, in the early days of euro cash, there was not only a lot of curiosity, but also skepticism and uncertainty. Even the then Bundesbank President Ernst Welteke later said that before his first trip to France after the introduction of the euro, he inadvertently instructed his secretary to pack enough francs in his suitcase.
Converting euro prices into D-Marks became a popular sport for a while. And because some restaurateurs in good inner-city locations tried to simply change the price for a glass of wine one-to-one instead of the official rate of 1 euro to 1.95583 D-Mark, the new currency quickly lost the nickname “Teuro”. Even the then Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder criticized on television that "important areas" of retail and gastronomy had rounded up the prices too generously. Economic analyzes, however, later showed that there had been individual economic sectors in which the introduction of the euro caused prices to rise sharply - but the overall inflation rate rose only moderately in that January 2002, from 1.7 to 2.1 percent.
Two decades, a euro crisis and a pandemic-related inflation later, the euro has established itself. Curiosity or skepticism has turned into habit. In addition, there is now almost an entire generation who no longer knows any other currency in this country. The approval of the euro, which was not outstanding in the beginning and which suffered noticeably during the euro crisis, has increased. This is suggested by surveys by the ECB, which regularly investigates whether people think the euro is a good thing. 76 percent of Germans recently expressed themselves positively. Nevertheless, there are still people who say in surveys that they would rather have the Deutschmark back. On the other hand, the results of the latest survey by the television station RTL, in which 54 percent of those surveyed said they still converted prices into D-Marks - fortunately only occasionally, seems almost bizarre.for large purchases.
In any case, the European Central Bank wants to celebrate the anniversary "20 years of euro cash" on New Year's Eve with a colorful illumination of its Frankfurt skyscraper. In addition, she wants to give the euro bills a new look: Unlike back then, the citizens should be involved when looking for emotionally appealing successors for the abstract bridges, windows and gates on the euro bills. How much money is a question of getting used to, you can tell from the fact that some who were once rather skeptical about the new euro bills now argue that you don't have to change the design of the bills; the neutral style has proven itself. The same applies to the ECB's plans to present a digital euro in five years' time: Here too, some in Germany are discoveringwho were rather critical of euro cash twenty years ago, now their love for notes and coins.
The euro has brought the eurozone countries closer together. It has also made traveling and paying abroad much easier in a very practical way. However, some of the concerns that existed at the beginning turned out to be well founded. The euro crisis showed that there can be serious problems when states have a common currency but no common fiscal policy. The Maastricht debt rules agreed as a replacement, which were sanctioned to secure permanent budget discipline in the monetary union, quickly proved to be toothless.
However, concerns that the euro could become softer than the D-Mark were unfounded until recently.
For a long time, inflation rates in the euro era were lower than in the D-Mark era.
Even if, to be fair, one has to add that the global environment was different and inflation was also lower over the period outside the euro zone.
The current phase of unusually high inflation rates will be another test for the system.
The ECB must prove that it can keep things under control if inflation persists - and act decisively regardless of the interests of the states.
Twenty years after the introduction of euro cash, this could become a very serious challenge.