By Michaela Schiessl [Der Spiegel] – Wilhelm Hankel is sitting on the stage at a meeting of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. He is beaming with joy. The 81-year-old professor has just explained why the euro has always been a monstrosity, and why it will and must fail. Although the current plans to “get a living corpse to walk” are touching, he scoffed, one thing is already clear: The euro bailout package will only save the banks.
Surprisingly enough, his presentation was met with long and enthusiastic applause from his audience of economists. For Hankel, it was about time. The recalcitrant professor has been waiting for what has seemed like an eternity for this recognition. Since Jan. 12, 1998, to be precise.
It was on that day Hankel drove to Karlsruhe in southwestern Germany, together with constitutional law expert Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider and economists Joachim Starbatty and Wilhelm Nölling. At the German Federal Constitutional Court, which is located in Karlsruhe, the four professors dropped off a 352-page brief that would change their lives. It was a complaint against the introduction of the euro. They didn’t want this new currency. They wanted to keep their old Federal Republic of Germany, as post-war Germany is officially known, and its German mark.
Nothing was the same again after that.
Continued at Spiegel Online | More Chronicle & Notices.
