Mervyn King, current governor of the Bank of England, was astonished on his first visit to the Bundesbank in the early 1990s, at least according to his host, Otmar Issing, then chief economist at Germany’s central bank.

“He asked to look around our offices and I said: ‘Of course.’ He was surprised because we were supposed to be so secretive.” Mr King was particularly struck when he asked staff what they were doing. “We’re working for the stability of the currency,” Mr Issing recalls them telling him.