One final remark: Another aspect where my former academic life did not fully prepare me to meet current challenges has to be mentioned. And this aspect is not common for most of my academic colleagues that have now turned into policymakers: The Bundesbank, an institution of roughly 11,000 employees, is an institution in transition.
The adjustment to the single monetary policy of the Eurosystem has meant a cultural watershed to the Bundesbank. Having formerly been the anchor of the European monetary system, the Bundesbank has been facing necessities of adjustment and workload involved has been more wide-ranging than it has been for other national central banks of the euro area.