The book provides an assessment of one of the most exciting experiments in modern economic history: the German currency union of 1990. The task is approached on three levels: First, the international consequences are analysed from various perspectives and different paradigms of monetary theory.

Second, the controversial results lead to a closer look at the relationship between monetary policy and the real sector of the German economy, and third, the book concludes with a reconsideration of the old economic question, whether money matters, applied to the German case.