According to information from the FAZ, the new federal government has decided to take the unusual step of sending its Executive Director at the World Bank, Gunther Beger, into early retirement.
The previous chief economist at the Ministry of Finance, Jakob von Weizsäcker, is in discussion for the post.
The 60-year-old Beger took up the post in Washington only in March of last year.
Winand von Petersdorff-Campen
Business correspondent in Washington.
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In the past, changes in government and ministers had rarely led to changes in staff among the envoys in multilateral institutions. It is also unusual that the post could be filled by a representative from the Ministry of Finance instead of a candidate from the Ministry for Economic Cooperation, which is now headed by Social Democrat Svenja Schulze. Beger, an expert on health, agriculture and rural development, was a confidante of her predecessor Gerd Müller (CSU).
Weizsäcker's days in the Ministry of Finance were numbered since the FDP politician Christian Lindner took over the department.
Weizsäcker was already an economist at the World Bank for several years in his varied career.
The think tank Breughel, the Ministry of Economics of Thuringia and the European Parliament as a member of parliament were further stations before Olaf Scholz brought him to the Ministry of Finance in 2018.
Scholz did not take the economist and offspring of the famous family (great-nephew of the former Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker and son of Ernst-Ulrich von Weizsäcker) with him to the Chancellery.
Other career speculations also turned out to be premature.
Weizsäcker did not move to the head of the Bundesbank or to the Council of Economic Wise Men.
There was no official confirmation for the personnel.