Germany has no idea what the real gold reserves it has

One may not believe that: but Germany has no idea what are the real gold reserve it has- it may be zilch.
The German politicians appeared keen interest in national reserves of gold. Accordingly DW-World, Germany has the largest after the U.S. gold reserves in the world: 3396 tons. Their market value is currently around 143 billion euros. But only 31% of this vast stores of wealth at the  German Federal Bank. The main part is outside the country - in the vaults of the U.S. (45%), British (13%) and French (11%) of the central banks.

Court of Auditors criticized the German Bundesbank for the fact that he did not hold inventory and did not check on the authenticity of the gold reserves of the country. Germany trusts to their partners, however, having thoroughly studied on orders of Parliament the issue of custody of German gold, it demanded that the Bundesbank's extensive inventory of foreign reserves and continue regular inspections.

It turned out that the staff of the Federal Bank has never themselves have checked the number, identity and weight of bullion, stored in New York, London and Paris. They invariably relied on a detailed written report of foreign colleagues.

It is believed that German gold stored outside the country since the days of the Cold War: Soviet troops fearing an attack, a young German chose to hide their national wealth overseas.

Since the end of the 1950s, Germany in trade with the Western powers was a huge surplus. The Americans, the British and French had financial problems from time to time, at the same time the Germans were in need of their military protection. "

Therefore, the expert on economic history Abelskhauzer Werner, along with a formal agreement to provide U.S., UK and France, German credits existed unwritten "gentlemen's agreement": Germans gave these countries deposited their gold and informally allowed their governments to use them in case of emergency . This agreement strengthens the credibility of former military adversary.

Board member of the German Federal Bank, Carl-Ludwig Thiele brought over another pragmatic argument for diversification of storage national gold reserves: keep a significant part of the reserves of Germany in New York, the Bundesbank always has the ability to lay them to get from the U.S. Federal Reserve U.S. dollars.

"We intend in the future to keep the gold in the international trading platforms, in exceptional cases, be able to quickly gain access to foreign currency," - said Carl-Ludwig Thiele.

Now, however, in response to criticism of the Bundesbank in a statement promised to "use as much as possible, the recommendations of the Accounting Chamber." In particular, in the next three years from New York to Germany will export 50 tons of gold, which is then melted down into ingots more modern standard.

However, the Bundesbank is not planning a large-scale actions such as the one conducted in 1966, by the French. According to legend, the then French President Charles de Gaulle, not wanting the U.S. kept at least some part of the national gold reserves, sent for them to New York a submarine.