The article examines the careers of German central bankers and the phenomenon of the revolving door in the first two postwar decades. It focuses on the personnel changes between central banking and politics resp. private banking and asks for the social structure of German central bankers, their training paths and changes in comparison to the Reichsbank era. Finally, the impact of recruitment practices on central bank policy will be outlined. The paper is based on the thesis that party-political orientation became significant for the rise of the presidents of the land central banks (Landeszentralbankpräsidenten) after 1945 and that relations to private banking were primarily evident in training, whereas such aspects were of secondary importance for central bank monetary policy.
