Karl Otto Pöhl (1 December 1929 – 9 December 2014) was a German economist and a president of the

Bundesbank The Deutsche Bundesbank (, , colloquially Buba, sometimes alternatively abbreviated as BBk or DBB) is the national central bank for Germany within the Eurosystem. It was the German central bank from 1957 to 1998, issuing the Deutsche Mark (DM). ...

and chairman of its Central Bank Council from 1980 to 1991. Born in

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, Pöhl worked as a sports reporter to help pay his way through the

Georg August University of Göttingen Georg may refer to: * ''Georg'' (film), 1997 *Georg (musical), Estonian musical * Georg (given name) * Georg (surname) * , a Kriegsmarine coastal tanker * Spiders Georg "Spiders Georg" is an Internet meme that began circulating on the mic ...

. A graduate economist, he became a researcher and department head of the publications department at the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. In the 1960s he worked as an economic journalist in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

until the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

won the 1969 national election. He then was employed by the Federal government's Economics Ministry and then the Finance Ministry. During the 1970s and 1980s, Pöhl was the driving force behind German efforts to get Europe's rampant inflation under control and to lay the framework for broad monetary cooperation among industrialized countries. He is referred to as one of the fathers of the

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

. Pöhl was a partner in Sal. Oppenheim Jr. & Cie., a German private investment bank and a member of the advisory board of the

Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...

. He had also been a member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the

Group of Thirty The Group of Thirty, often abbreviated to G30, is an international body of financiers and academics which aims to deepen understanding of economic and financial issues and to examine consequences of decisions made in the public and private sec ...

since 1992. He sat on the advisory boards of

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...

Gulfstream The Gulf Stream is a warm Atlantic Ocean current. Gulf Stream or Gulfstream may also refer to: Businesses *Gulf Stream Hotel, an historic hotel in Lake Worth Beach, Florida *Gulfstream Aerospace, manufacturer of private jet aircraft *Gulfstream C ...

, GAMCO, VW, Barrick Gold,

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

and

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

. Karl Otto Pöhl was married, had four children and lived in Zurich. He died on 9 December 2014 at the age of 85.

References

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pohl, Karl Otto 1929 births 2014 deaths Businesspeople from Hanover Presidents of the Deutsche Bundesbank Waldorf school alumni The Carlyle Group people Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German chief executives

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