BERLIN: In a picturesque wine town about 100km from Frankfurt lies a hidden bunker that for decades was one of Germany’s best-kept secrets.
Built in 1962, the cavernous structure housed alternative deutsche marks, should West Germany’s Cold War foes flood the market with counterfeit banknotes in a bid to trigger hyperinflation.
In the end, the back-up currency wasn’t needed and was destroyed in 1988. Concern among Germans over the security of their money persists, however.
Just over a year before a decision on whether to roll out a digital version of the euro, about half of people in Europe’s biggest economy even can’t imagine using it.
Privacy is the overriding worry, with Germans the most uneasy on this score within the eurozone’s top members.
An enduring preference for cash reflects such views: Bundesbank president Joachim Nagel describes it as “sacred.”
A trip this month to the bunker, in Cochem, confirmed such sentiments.
A group of local pensioners, who learned only recently of the facility’s existence, was sceptical toward the possibility of a digital euro. One former bank employee said card and online payments already left her feeling like she had no control over her expenditures.
Others reckoned a digital currency could leave Germany dangerously dependent on technology.
Hans Heinrich Kloeppel, who retired from Deutsche Post in 2010 and helped to organise the excursion, prefers using cash most of the time, though “out of habit, I guess.” Tellingly, no one besides Kloeppel would divulge their name.
The European Central Bank (ECB), which is developing the digital euro and will make a final decision on whether to implement it late 2025, is aware of the fears around it.
For privacy and security, it plans to employ techniques like data encryption and hashing to prevent a direct link between transactions and specific users.
Furthermore, it will make the currency available through a card – not just on mobile phones – for offline use.
It will also strive to reach less digitally savvy citizens and offer vulnerable groups including asylum seekers the chance to get on board.
“We envisage a digital euro as a digital form of cash that can be used for all digital payments, coexisting with physical cash, leaving no one behind,” ECB president Christine Lagarde said in October on X as the project’s preparation phase was launched.
It’s not only Germans – whose card payments are steadily rising – that she needs to convince. Countries including Austria, Slovakia and Malta are even keener on cash, even as nearby eurozone members like the Netherlands shun it almost entirely in favour of digital solutions.
What’s more, younger Germans aren’t as edgy over privacy. One study found that a third of over 65-year-olds would refuse to provide personal data online – even to improve service quality – compared with just 10% of 18 to 24-year-olds.
Nagel, the Bundesbank chief, is optimistic that even his more senior compatriots can still be convinced of the merits of a digital euro.
“I win over the older generation by telling them that cash will not disappear,” he said in July at the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
“While I can’t convince my 92-year-old mother, the older generation – which I will soon be part of when I’m over 60 – is so digitally savvy these days that I honestly don’t really need to reach out to them anymore. They understand what’s happening.”
Back at the bunker, which once stored as many as 15 billion alternative deutsche marks, tour organiser Kloeppel shared the doubts of his fellow guests over the digital euro, but also offered a glimmer of hope.
“You can’t close yourself off from it,” he said. “You have to adapt to such new developments.” — Bloomberg
