A kilo of bananas is all that Gerhard Schr÷der wanted to buy with his first euro yesterday. He tossed his last two-deutschmark coin to a busker on the street on his way home, just hours after Germany bade a dry-eyed farewell to its old currency and made a smooth transfer to the euro. After 53 years the country's most cherished symbol of post-war prosperity has been consigned to history.
"Many people will be a bit wistful. We associate the mark with good old days in Germany, but you can be sure of one thing: even better days are to come," said Mr Schr÷der in paternal tones during his New Year address.
Over one million people gathered around the Brandenburg Gate in central Berlin on Monday for an elaborate fireworks display and street party to welcome the new year and the new currency.
German banks and businesses reported a smooth changeover yesterday, with enough notes and coins to go round. Confusion was kept to a minimum thanks to the simple exchange rate of almost exactly two deutschmarks to the euro.
"People will ask themselves why we didn't do this sooner," said Hans Eichel, the German Finance Minister, as he received his first euro banknotes.
As the new year's fireworks died down on Monday night, small queues formed around Berlin and other cities at cash machines that started dispensing euros shortly after midnight.
"To an outsider it must look crazy, all of us here standing in the snow to collect money we can't even spend until tomorrow," said Dieter Fischer, outside a bank in Berlin's Kreuzberg district.
Others had a more practical reason for waiting in the cold for the new currency. Almost all Berlin banks shut down their ATMs in the early afternoon on New Year's Eve to be ready for midnight, an unpleasant surprise for partygoers.
In the city's bars and cafes, small groups of people gathered to study the new notes on Monday night.
"Definitely just play money," was the view of one woman. "It's not that bad," said a female friend. "But it does remind me more of gift tokens than cash."
Yesterday morning the queues at the cash machines had moved to the few shops in the city that were open, such as at the Ostbahnhof train station in eastern Berlin. Traders there said there were few problems with the new currency, though few customers were coming in with it.
"Out of 10 people I have just served, only one actually paid in euro," said one shopowner. "I just hope we don't turn into the country's unofficial bureau de change."
Malte Mienert from the eastern district of Treptow said most former East Germans had fewer emotional ties to the mark than Westerners.
"The euro is just another currency for us easterners, like the deutschmark a decade ago," he said.
There was little sign of nostalgia among Berliners for the late, great deutschmark. Although the currency reform of 1948 marked the post-war return to prosperity, the deutschmark was one of the first steps in the process that led to the Russian blockade of the city and the Berlin Wall.
"The Germans are a little bit annoyed by it all, I think," said Bill Keogh from Limerick.