It was, in particular, Hans Tietmeyer, my pre-predecesssor and Vice-President at the time who was quick to grasp the far-reaching importance of those historic events for central banking: the fall of the Iron Curtain, the collapse of the communist regimes in central and eastern Europe, the subsequent transformation in those countries from a planned economy to a market economy as well as the break-up of the Soviet Union and the resulting formation of new, independent states.
Many of those states had to start from scratch in establishing their own national central banks. All things considered, there was a major and vital need for central bank cooperation. Hence, in the first few years of its existence, the activities of the Bundesbank’s “Technical Central Bank Cooperation” were very much focused on the process of restructuring the banking system in those countries.