20 years ago: When the euro came to the district

Created: 01/02/2022, 4:06 pm

From: Jörg Domke

The euro starter kits were in great demand before the currency was introduced on January 1, 2002. © Gero Breloer / dpa

Two marks became one euro.

Exactly 20 years ago, new money was put into circulation in almost every country in the EU.

A businessman, a banker and a chamberlain remember the beginning of 2002.

District - "I was really scared".

Alois Rupprich, now retired from Markt Schwaben, makes no secret of the fact that the turn of the year 2001 to 2002 was associated with emotions for him.

Back then, exactly 20 years ago, he was the head of an interior design business on Ebersberger Strasse in Markt Schwaben, which has now been taken over by the offspring.

Weeks before the turn of the year, the wildest thoughts were raging in him.

Will it all work out?

Will the changeover from the D-Mark to the Euro work?

Twelve of the 15 EU member states, including the Federal Republic, were involved.

Today, exactly two decades later, it seems as if the now 68-year-old had to laugh at himself at the huge concerns he had at the time.

Everything worked.

The IT in the store did not cause any problems, and neither did the till system, which had not yet been digitized.

Alois Rupprich was “really scared” © dul

But what about the change when customers come in with their big bills on the first day of business in 2002?

Rupprich recalls: “I tried to get enough hard money from a local bank in good time.

But they weren't prepared for the crowds. "

Rupprich, then as now on the board of directors of the local employers' association, got his change from the Vereinsbank headquarters in Munich at Arabellapark.

With a handover in the underground car park and so that it even had to be pushed to its van there with a wheelbarrow.

What amount was it once?

Rupprich doesn't know anymore.

Better, he says, talk in kilograms.

According to his estimate, it was probably around 50 kg.

What Rupprich calls "Schiss" brought him, at least at the time, shaking his head in the close family circle. His mother Sofie, who was still in the shop until 1975, preached repeatedly to keep the ball flat. She was born in 1919, so she had seen currency reforms several times. And with her serenity she should be right this time too.

That with the 50 kilos of change was of course a superfluous junk, Rupprich admits in retrospect. And otherwise the introduction of the euro went surprisingly smoothly. With him, and also with most of his colleagues in retail, as he assumes. Goods in the store were not only awarded twice at Rupprichs. Initially, customers had the option of paying either in D-Mark or in euros. Small, slimmed-down pocket calculators and tables were available to the checkout staff, which quickly converted what had to be converted.

A number that almost everyone somehow had at least halfway in their heads was 1.95583.

That's how many Deutschmarks turned into one euro.

We Germans still had an easy time of it.

In their heads, everyone converted “pi times a thumb” 2: 1.

With the neighbors in Austria, more mathematical efforts were necessary: ​​13.7603 Schillings became one euro overnight.

Rupprich admits that it took him a while to complete the currency changeover in his head.

As a banker, Oliver Brandhuber had been involved with the euro for a long time.

© RB Zorneding

He is not alone with this admission.

Oliver Brandhuber, member of the board of directors at Raiffeisenbank Zorneding, qualifies, however, that as a banker he had a certain advantage over others at the time.

"Of course, we dealt with the topic of the euro at an early stage."

At that time Brandhuber was 33 years old, authorized signatory and department head in Zorneding.

And thus someone who was not directly concerned with the start of the euro.

However, he remembers the so-called starter kit: The first coins were handed in shrink-wrapped in sachets on December 17, 2001, and retailers and banks were even able to get them earlier.

Like all other euro coins and notes, they were only valid as a means of payment on January 1, 2002.

In the undamaged condition, these plastic bags are now being traded among collectors for a multiple of their actual value.

After all: Brandhuber has saved such a package.

And, unlike the author of these lines, still knows where he kept it for 20 years.

From a banker's point of view, the introduction of the euro went relatively smoothly at the time, said the 53-year-old.

On January 1st, as was planned, every customer was given the brand new notes directly at the machine in the early morning for the first time.

While the customer accounts were converted accordingly in the data centers almost overnight.

1.95583 Deutschmarks for one euro.

The euro caused a lot of extra work in the combing department, reports Georg Söhn.

© J. Dziemballa

There was a special effort to make in the city and community treasuries, remembers Georg Söhn, who was the CFO at the market town of Schwabener Rathaus at the time. The 2002 budget was still written in D-Marks in 2001, according to Söhn. And then later converted into the new currency. The euro caused extra work when it came to converting amounts in statutes or fees. In some cases, completely new resolutions have become necessary for legal reasons. It sometimes took months for the final implementation. Just as labor-intensive was the issue of new notices for water, sewer or garbage, property and trade taxes or dog tax. Söhn admits: "It took a long time for the D-Mark to disappear from the mind."

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