central bank. fifthly, no representative of berlin was present. the western powers excluded berlin from the plans concerning currency reform. this also drew sharp criticism from the conclave of rothwesten. as late as the autumn of 1957, the president of the berlin central bank attended the meetings only as a guest, having what was termed an “ advisory vote ”. sixthly, and finally, representatives from the soviet zone of occupation were absent. this is mentioned not merely for the sake of completeness. after all, in early march 1948, negotiations were still taking place on a four - zone currency reform - at least in a formal sense. on march 20, the soviets left the negotiating table for good. the die had probably been cast beforehand, though. and therein lies a sort of tragedy of that time. currency reform perpetuated the division of germany which to all intents all practical purposes had already been under way. the bank deutscher lander became the first institution of “ trizonesia ”. much has been written, and speculation has abounded, regarding the events of that period and the reasons for them. one thing is sure : currency reform was certainly not the cause of the subsequent forty - year division of germany. however, it undoubtedly made the separation of both parts of germany more obvious than it already was. and it is certainly not completely accidental that the introduction of the d - mark in eastern germany in 1990 also paved the way for political reunification. on november 12, 1992 - following the reorganisation of the bundesbank ’ s structure - representatives of land central banks with responsibility for the east german lander became members of the central bank council for the first time. iii the central bank council of march 8, 1948 thus also mirrored the conflicts of that period. but that is only one aspect. the first central bank council meeting was, at the same time, a reflection of the compromise between the american approach, which tended to be federalist, and the british approach, which was more centralised, and this included those issues which remained controversial to the end : is the board allowed to be operationally active? and : what is the composition of the central bank council? since that time, the institution of the central bank council has had, on the one hand, a centralist element - as the name says. in particular, it is responsible for a single monetary policy. the land central banks do not have any discretionary scope in that respect ; their task is to implement

mr. tietmeyer reviews the central bank council of the deutsche bundesbank on its 50th anniversary address delivered by the president of the deutsche bundesbank, prof. hans tietmeyer, during the ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the first meeting of the central bank council at the land central bank of hesse in frankfurt / main on 5 / 3 / 98. on march 8, 1948, eleven men gathered next door in the building of the then land central bank of hesse. the central bank council - which at that time was still “ provisional ” - of the bank deutscher lander, which had been established on march 1, was meeting for the first time. an american officer of the allied banking commission ( appropriately named mr. freeman ) convened the first meeting at 10. 30 a. m. there will be quite a few fiftieth anniversaries in the coming weeks and months occasioned by the flood of major events relating to germany which took place in 1948 and 1949. many of these events were certainly more dramatic and spectacular than the first meeting of the central bank council. yet, if we remember this meeting now, it is because a crucial decision for the future began to take shape at that time. if that which was begun on march 8, 1948 had not met with success, the history of the d - mark ( and perhaps also the history of our country ) would have taken a different course. it is true that the preparations for the introduction of the d - mark were carried out elsewhere and by others, particularly by the allies themselves. yet, with monetary reform on june 20, when the first d - mark banknotes came into circulation, the fate of the new currency began to be linked to the viability and the stability orientation of the german central bank council. it is also true that the central bank council did not act alone in achieving and safeguarding the dmark ’ s subsequent success and high level of stability. however, it acted in an exposed position, i. e. particularly wherever the scarcity of money was and is the issue. ii the first central bank council meeting was preceded by fundamental differences of opinion among the allies on the shape of the future german central banking system. the americans wanted to start again from scratch. they saw a highly concentrated and largely centralised economy as an environment in which the totalitarian regime in germany had been able to thrive. they therefore wanted the structures to be as pluralistic as possible. incidentally, that was also