Wihelm Hankel, Germany no longer needs Europe debate in London, May 2011

Wilhelm Hankel

Former President of Hessische Landesbank and now Central Bank adviser to the Iraqi government; outspoken critic of both the euro and the recent euro rescue package.

Emeritus Professor of Monetary and International Development Policy at the Goethe University in Frankfurt since 1971, Professor Hankel has played a key role in shaping (West) Germany's postwar economic development. Chief economist at the Bank of Reconstruction - formed as part of the Marshall Plan in 1948 - from 1959 to 1967, he went on to become Head of the Department of Money and Credit in the Federal Republic's Ministry for Economic Affairs. Three years later he began his seven-year stint in charge of the state-owned Regional Bank of Hesse.

He has held guest professorships at numerous German and American universities including Harvard, Georgetown, the Technical University of Dresden and the Free University of Berlin, and has undertaken consulting assignments for the World Bank, the European Union, and the German Development Aid Agency (GTZ). He is currently adviser to the Iraqi central bank. Hankel has been a staunch and outspoken critic of the euro: In 1998, together with three colleagues, he lodged a complaint against its introduction to Germany at the German Federal Constitutional Court. More recently, he has contributed to the euro-bashing documentary 'Once upon a time, there was the Euro,' and attacked the recent euro rescue package, rejecting the notion that Germany was in any way obliged to fund the Greek bailout.